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WISDOM, WIT, AND WHIMS 



OF 



DISTINGUISHED ANCIENT PHILOSOPHERS. 



W I S D M , 



WIT AND W H I M S 



OF 



Jiatingats^ll ^ncinit f posojjijeo; 



EMBRACING 



THE MOST IMPORTANT AND INTERESTING- INCIDENTS OF THEIR 

HISTORY, THEIR PERSONAL MANNERS AND HABITS, AND 

ANECDOTES OF THEIR INTERCOURSE AMONG THE HIGH 

AND THE LOW, WITH THEIR MOST REMARKABLE 

APOTHEGMS, PROYERBS, AND FlTHY REPLIES 

TO DIFFICULT AND CURIOUS QUESTIONS, 

ALPHABETICALLY ARRANGED. 



y 



BY JOSEPH BANYABD, A.M., 
n 

AUTHOR OIT "PLYMOUTH AND THE PILGRIMS," "NOVELTIES OF THE NEW WORLD, 
" ROMANCE OF AMERICAN HISTORY," ETC., ETC. 




^ r EW YORK: 
SHELDON, LAMPORT & BLAKEIIAM 
1 I 5 N A S8AD S T R E ST. " j 

1855. nj0r/t 

&~^ S%£hz. S^Z& 







Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by 

JOSEPH BANVARD, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the 

Southern District of NewJ^rk. 




STEREOTYPED BY 

THOMAS B. SMITH, 
216 William St., N. Y. 



PRINTED BY 

E O. JENKINS, 
114 Nassau St. 



?¥ 



f Tttbtt. 



In preparing the present volume, the compiler availed 
himself of the works of various authors, the principal of 
which were, " The History of Philosophy from the Earliest 
Periods, drawn up from Brucker's Historia Oritica Phi- 
losophise, by William Enfield, LL.D ;" " The Lives and 
Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, by Diogenes Laertius, 
translated by 0. D. Yonge, B. A. ;" and " Stanley's History 
of Philosophy and Lives of the Philosophers," neither of 
which has ever been published in this country. 

No attempt is made to develop the various systems of 
Philosophy which at different ages have prevailed, but sim- 
ply to present the most interesting and important events 
in the history of the philosophers themselves. The work 
contains a great amount of curious and instructive infor- 
mation, which, hitherto, has not been accessible to the gen- 
eral reader. The most of those whose memoirs are here 
given were authors, and many of them produced numer- 
ous works. There were also many philosophers of the same 
names ; but in the following pages, reference has been made 
only to the most distinguished. 



OLflutntts 



/Ebesitjs 


. 13 


/Escmnes 


13 


Alcmjeon 


. 15 


AL-FAEABr 


15 


Al-TCendi 


. 16 


Ajstachaesis 


17 


AXAXAECHUS .... 


. 20 


Anaxagoeas 


21 


Anaxilaus . . . . . 


. . . .24 


Anaximakdee 


24 


AxTISTHEKES 


. 26 


ApOLLONITJS . 


34 


Aecesilatjs 


. 40 


Aeciiytas 


47 


Aeistippus . . 


. 48 


Aeiston 


56 


Akistotle 


. 57 




72 


Aveeeoes 


. 75 


AVICENNA 


78 


Belus 


. 80 


Bias 


81 


Bion 


. 84 



CONTENTS. 



Oalanus . 
Calvisitjs Tapetts . 
Oato. 

Caeneades . 
Ohilo 
Ohetsipptjs . 

OlOEEO 

Cleanthes . 
Cleobtjltjs. 
Oeantoe 
Oeates 



Demetbius . 
Demeteitjs of Ooeinth 
Democeitus . 
Demonax 
Diogenes 

DlOGENES, THE BABYLONIAN 
DlAGOEAS • ' • 



Eddin Sadi. 
Empedooles . 
Epiotettjs . 
Epicueus 
Epimenides 
Eeigena, J. Scotus 

EtTBULIDES. 

Euclid . 
Eudoxus . 
Epsebius 



Fayoeintjs 



89 
90 
91 
96 

99 
102 
107 
112 
115 
117 
119 

124 
127 
127 
130 
132 
15S 
158 



160 
163 
169 
170 
182 
185 
186 
187 
189 
189 

190 



Geebeet 



191 



CONTENTS. XI 

PAGES 

Hegesias . . 191 

Heeaclides . . 192 

Heeaclites 194 

HlPPAEOHIA 199 

HlEEOCLES 200 

HlLLEL 200 

Hypatia . 201 

Julian 204 

Lacydes 206 

Lyoon 207 

Maximtjs 211 

Menedemes 212 

Monimes 222 

Mesonies 223 

Pittacus ' . . . 223 

Peeiandee 227 

Pheeecydes 231 

Plato 233 

Pliny 254 

Polemo 257 

Peocles 259 

Peotagobas 261 

Pyeeho . . 263 

Pythagoeas .... . . . . . 268 

Qeinties Tebeeo . 296 

Seneca . . . 296 

Simon 303 

Simon Mages 303 



Xll CONTEXTS. 

PAGE 

Socrates . 304 

Solon . . . . . * 333 

Speusippus 368 

Stilpo 370 

Strato 373 

Tiiales . .374 

Themistius 381 

TlTEOPHRASTUS 382 

Xenocrates 385 

Xestophon 388 

Zeno. 390 

Zexo, the Eleatic 406 



WISDOM, WIT, AND WHIMS 



OF 



DISTINGUISHED ANCIENT PHILOSOPHERS 



zEDESIUS. 

./Edesitts was of Cappadocia. He pretended to super- 
natural communications with the Deity, and practised theurgic 
arts. Among the wonderful events which are said to have 
happened to him, one is, that in answer to his prayer, his future 
fate was revealed to him in hexameter verses, which suddenly 
appeared upon the palm of his left hand. 



^ESCHINES 



JEschixbs was the son of Charinus, the sausage-maker, but, 
as some writers say, of Lysanias ; he was a citizen of Athens, 
of an industrious disposition from his boyhood upwards, on 
which account he never quitted Socrates. 

And this induced Socrates to say, the only one w T ho knows 
how to pay us proper respect is the son of the sausage-seller. 
Idomeneus asserts, that it was he who, in the prison, tried to 
persuade Socrates to make his escape, and not Crito. But 
that Plato, as he was rather inclined to favor Aristippus, at- 
tributed his advice to Crito. 

2 



14 JJSCHINES. 

iEscHiNES discovered an early thirst after knowledge, and, 
though oppressed by poverty, devoted himself to the pursuit 
of wisdom under the tuition of Socrates. When he first be- 
came his disciple, he told Socrates, that the only thing which 
it was in his power to present him, in acknowledgment of his 
kindness in instructing him, was himself. Socrates replied, 
that he accepted, and valued the present, but that he hoped 
to render it more valuable by culture. He adhered to his mas- 
ter with unalterable fidelity and perseverance, and enjoyed his 
particular friendship. 

Having spent many years in Athens, without being able to 
rise above the poverty of his birth, he determined, after the 
example of Plato, and others, to visit the Court of Dionysius, 
the tyrant of Sicily, who was at that time, either through 
vanity or jealousy, a general patron of philosophers. Upon 
his arrival in Syracuse, though slighted, on account of his 
poverty, by Plato, he was introduced to the prince by Aris- 
tippus, and was liberally rewarded for his Socratic dialogues. 
He remained in Sicily till the expulsion of the tyrant, and then 
returned to Athens. Here, not daring to become a pubilc 
rival of Plato or Aristippus, he taught philosophy in private, 
and received payment for his instructions. Afterwards, in 
order to provide himself with a more plentiful subsistence, he 
appeared as a public orator ; and Demosthenes, probably be- 
cause he was jealous of his abilities (for he excelled in elo- 
quence), became his opponent. Besides orations and epistles, 
iEschines wrote seven Socratic dialogues in the true spirit of 
his master, on temperance, moderation, humanity, integrity, 
and other virtues. Of these only three are extant. 

Timon said of him, "The speeches of iEschines which do 
not convince any one." Aristippus suspected the genuiness 
of some of his dialogues ; accordingly, they say that when he 
was reciting some of them at Megara, he ridiculed him, and 
said to him, " O you thief, where did you get that?" 

The account as given by Stanley is, that being very poor, 



ALCMJSON AL-FARABI. 15 

Socrates bade him take some of his dialogues and. make money 
with them, which, Aristippus suspecting when he read them 
at Megara, derided, him, saying, " How came you by these 
plagiary?" 

At another time Aristippus falling out with him, was asked 
what became of his friendship ? He answered, " It is asleep, 
but I will wake it." He used to define the chief good, as a 
gentle motion tending to sensation. 



ALOMiEON. 



Alctvleon of Orotona, was a disciple of Pythagoras. He at- 
tained a high degree of reputation for his knowledge of nature 
and of medicine. He is said to have been the first person who 
attempted the dissection of a dead body. 

He taught that the moon is in the form of a boat, and when 
the bottom of the boat is turned towards the earth, it is invisible. 
The brain is the chief seat of the soul. Health consists in pre- 
serving a due mean between the extremes of heat and cold, 
dryness and moisture, 



AL-FARABI 



One of the most celebrated philosophers of the school of 
Bagdat was Al-Farabi, or more properly Abu Nasr, a native of 
Balch Farab, who flourished in the tenth century. He was 
born of wealthy parents ; but, preferring the pursuits of philo- 
sophy to those of riches, he devoted himself to study at Bag- 
dat, where he made such proficiency in learning, that he be- 
came one of the most eminent philosophers of his age. He 
studied mathematics and medicine, but chiefly excelled in 



10 JACOBU S-AL-KEIn DI. 

logic. His learning and abilities were universally admired, and 
great men and princes were emulous to load him with honors 
and rewards. But Al-Farabi refused every offer of this 
kind ; and, either through his love of philosophy, or perhaps 
through a natural gloominess of temper, gave himself up 
to solitude and an abstemious life. He constantly slept, even 
during winter, upon straw ; his countenance was always sor- 
rowful, and he found no consolation in anything but philoso- 
phy. The cast of his mind led him to dread all intercourse 
with the world as destructive of innocence, and to lament the 
imperfection and vanity of human life. He employed his time 
in study, and read the writings of Aristotle with unwearied 
attention. He wrote sixty distinct treatises on different parts 
of the Aristotelian philosophy, which were read and admired, 
not only among the Arabians but also among the Jews, who 
began about this time to adopt the Aristotelian mode of philo- 
sophising. Many of his books were translated from Arabic 
into Hebrew. 



JAOOBUS-AL-KENDI 



Jacobus- Al-Kendi of Bassora, was an Arabian philosopher 
who nourished about the beginning of the ninth century. He 
yielded implicit submission to Aristotle, and was chiefly em- 
ployed in interpreting his writings. He also studied mathe- 
matics, astronomy and medicine. 

Abulfaragius, speaking of Al-Kendi, relates a memorable 
instance of his moderation towards a malicious adversary. 
Whilst this philosopher was visiting the schools of Bagdat, 
which was at this time the chief resort of the learned, his at- 
tempts to promote the study of philosophy, and to reconcile 
the doctrines of Islamism with the principles of reason, gave 
great offence to one of the interpreters of the Koran, who, 



ANACHAHSIS. 1 ? 

doubtless, began to be afraid lest the increase of knowledge 
should expose the absurdity of the vulgar superstitions. This 
bigot publicly expressed the most vehement indignation against 
Al-Kendi, and accused him of impiety and heresy. Al-Kendi, 
however, instead of restraining the fury of his persecutor by 
violence, as through his interest with the Caliph he might 
easily have done, generously adopted the more gentle method 
of attempting to subdue his malignity by enlightening his un- 
derstanding. Having detected the design which this Abu 
Maashar (that was the zealot's name) had formed upon his 
life, he employed against him no other weapons than the mo- 
nitions and precepts of philosophy. Well knowing the power 
of wisdom to meliorate the temper, he found means to engage 
a preceptor to instruct him, first in mathematics, and after- 
wards in philosophy. The consequence was, that the man 
who had, not long before, inveighed with savage ferocity 
against Al-Kendi, soon became sensible of his folly, and offered 
himself as pupil to the philosopher whom he had persecuted. 
Al-Kendi received him with the most meritorious condescen- 
sion, and his convert became an ornament to his school. In 
fine, on account of his virtues no less than his learning, Al- 
Kendi is entitled to an honorable rank among philosophers. 



ANACHARSIS. 



Anacharsis, the Scythian, was the son of Gnurus, the 
brother of Oaduides, the king of the Scythians. But his 
mother was a Greek woman, owing to which circumstance he 
understood both languages. He preferred the pursuits of wis- 
dom to those of ambition. He visited Athens, and was con- 
ducted by Toxaris, his countryman, to the house of Solon, the 
famous Athenian Legislator. Having arrived there, he re- 
quested one of the attendants to inform his master that Ana- 



18 ANACHAESIS. 

charsis a Scythian, was at the door, and requested to be re- 
ceived into the house as his guest and friend. To this message 
Solon's answer was, that " friendships are best formed at 
home." To which Anacharsis replied, " Then let Solon, who 
is at home, make me his friend, and receive me into his house." 
Solon, struck with the smartness of the reply, admitted him as 
his guest, and finding him, on account of his good sense and 
probity, worthy of his confidence, allowed him to share his 
friendship. Anacharsis, on his part, became such an admirer 
of Solon, that he constantly associated with him till he made 
himself master of all the knowledge which that wise man pos- 
sessed. During his residence in Athens, he was honored with 
the privilege of citizenship, an honor never before conferred 
upon a barbarian. 

After the death of Solon, Anacharsis travelled through a 
great part of the world in search of wisdom, and at last re- 
turned into his own country, probably with the hope of com- 
municating to his countrymen the wisdom he had acquired in 
Greece. But they were too much attached to their old opin- 
ions and customs, to endure with patience the bold attempts 
which he made to introduce among them the institutions and 
manners of the Greeks. As he was one day hunting, an 
arrow, sent, some say, from the hand of his brother, put an 
end to his life. He lamented with his last breath the jealousy 
and folly of his countrymen, who would not suffer one wiser 
than themselves to live among them. 

Anacharsis was famous for a manly and nervous kind of 
language, which was called, from his country, Scythian elo- 
quence. He is said to have invented the anchor and the pot- 
ter's wheel; but these instruments were known before his 
time ; perhaps he first introduced the use of them among the 
Scythians. Among many other ingenious sayings, ascribed 
by Laertius to Anacharsis, are the following : Being asked by 
what means a man addicted to intemperance might be taught 
sobriety, he replied, "by placing before his eyes a drunken 



ANACHARSIS. 19 

man. The vine," he said, " bears three kinds of fruit * the first, 
pleasure; the second, intoxication; the third, remorse." An 
Athenian of infamous character upbraiding him with being a 
Scythian, he said : " My country is indeed a disgrace to me, 
but you are a disgrace to your country." The epistles which 
bear his name were probably produced at a later period in 
the school of the Sophists. 

He also said that he marvelled how the Greeks, who make 
laws against those who behave with insolence, honor Athletse 
because of their beating one another. When he had been in- 
formed that the sides of a ship were four fingers thick, he said, 
" That those who sailed in one were removed by just that dis- 
tance from death." He used to say that oil was a provocative 
of madness, "because Athletse, when anointed in the oil, 
attacked one another with mad fury." 

" How is it," he used to say, " that those who forbid men 
to speak falsely, tell lies openly in their vintners' shops ?" It 
was a saying of his, that he " marvelled why the Greeks, at 
the beginning of a banquet, drink out of small cups, but when 
they have drunk a good deal, then they turn to large goblets." 
And this inscription is on his statues — " Eestrain your tongues, 
your appetites, and your passions." He was once asked if 
the flute was known among the Scythians : and he said, 
"No, nor the vine either." At another time, the question 
was put to him, which was the safest kind of vessel ? and he 
said, " That which is brought into dock." He said, too, that 
the strangest thing that he had seen among the Greeks was, 
that " They left the smoke* in the mountains, and carried the 
wood down to their cities." Once, when he was asked, which 
were the more numerous, the living or the dead ? he said, 
"Under which head do you class those who are at sea." 

* Some propose to read karpon, fruit, instead of kapnon, smoke, here ; others 
explain this saying as meaning that the Greeks avoided houses on the hills in 
order not to be annoyed with the smoke from the low cottages, and yet did not 
use coal, but wood, which made more smoke. 



20 ANAXAEC II U S . 

When he was asked what there was among men which was 
both good and bad, he replied, " The tongue," He used to 
say "That it was better to have one friend of great value, 
than many friends who were good for nothing." Another 
saying of his was, that "The forum was an established pl.ace 
for men to cheat one another, and behave covetously." Being 
once insulted by a young man at a drinking party, he said, 
" O, young man, if now that you are young you cannot bear 
wine, when you are old you will have to bear water." 

When beholding the tomb of Mausolus he said, " A sump- 
tuous monument is a petrified fortune." It is said that he was 
never seen to laugh or smile. 



ANAXAKCHUS. 



Anaxaechus was a native of Abdera, a pupil of Diogenes 
and an intimate acquaintance of Alexander. He had for an 
enemy Nicocreon, the tyrant of Cyprus. On one occasion, 
when Alexander at a banquet asked him what he thought of the 
entertainment, he is said to have replied, " O king, everything 
is provided very sumptuously ; and the only thing wanted is 
to have the head of some satrap served up ;" hinting at Nico- 
creon. And £Ticocreon did not forget his grudge against him 
for this ; but after the death of the, king, when Anaxarchus, 
who was making a voyage, was driven against his will into 
Cyprus, he took him and put him in a mortar, and commanded 
him to be pounded to death with iron pestles. ' And then they 
say that he, disregarding this punishment, uttered that cele- 
brated saying, " Beat the bag of Anaxarchus, but you will not 
beat Anaxarchus himself." And then, when Mcocreon com- 
manded that his tongue should be cut out, it is said that he 
bit it off, and spit it at him. And we have written an epigram 
upon him in the following terms : — 



A N A X A G R A S. 21 

Beat more and more ; you're beating but a bag ; 
Beat, Anaxarchus is in heav'n with Jove. 
Hereafter Proserpine will rack your bones, 
And say, Thus perish, you accursed beater. 

Anaxarchus, on account of the evenness of bis temper and. 
the tranquillity of his life, was called the Happy. And he was 
a man to whom it was very easy to reprove men and bring 
them to temperance. Accordingly, he produced an alteration 
in Alexander who thought himself a God, for when he saw 
the blood flowing from some wound that he had received, he 
pointed to him with his finger, and said, " This is blood, and 
not: — 

" Such stream as issues from a wounded God ; 
Pure emanation, uncorrupted flood, 
Unlike our gross, diseas'd, terrestrial blood." 

But Plutarch says that it was Alexander himself who quoted 
these lines to his friends. 

They also tell a story that Anaxarchus once drank to him, 
and then showed the goblet, and said : — 

Shall any mortal hand dare wound a God ? 



AIAXAGOEAS 



Afaxagoeas of Olazomene, born on the first year of the 
seventeenth Olympiad, was a disciple of Anaximenes. He in- 
herited from his parents a patrimony, which might have se- 
cured him independence and distinction at home ; but such 
was his thirst after knowledge, that about the twentieth year 
of his age, he left his country, without taking proper precau- 
tions concerning his estate, and went to reside at Athens. 
Here he diligently applied himself to the study of eloquence and 
poetry, and was particularly conversant with the works of 
Homer, whom he admired as the best preceptor, not only in 



22 ANAXAGORAS. 

writing, but in morals. Engaging afterwards in speculations 
concerning nature, the fame of the Milesian school induced 
him to leave Athens, that he might attend upon the public in- 
structions of Anaximenes. Under him he became acquainted 
with his doctrines, and those of his predecessors, concerning 
natural bodies and the origin of things. So ardently did he 
engage in these inquiries, that he said concerning himself that 
he was born to contemplate the heavens. Visiting his native 
city, he found that, whilst he had been busy in the pursuit of 
knowledge, his estate had run to waste ; upon which he re- 
marked, that to this ruin he owed his prosperity. One of his 
fellow-citizens complaining that he, who was so well qualified, 
both by rank and ability, for public offices, had shown so lit- 
tle regard for his country, he replied, " My first care is for my 
country," pointing to heaven. After remaining for some years 
at Miletus, he returned to Athens, and there taught philosophy 
in private. Among his pupils were several eminent men, par- 
ticularly the tragedian Euripides, and the orator and states- 
man Pericles ; to whom some add Socrates and Themistocles. 

The high degree of reputation which he had acquired at 
length excited the jealousy and envy of his contemporaries,, and 
brought upon him a cruel persecution. It is generally agreed 
that he was thrown into prison, and condemned to death ; 
and that it was with difficulty that Pericles obtained from his 
judge the milder sentence of fine and banishment; but the 
nature of the charge alleged against him is variously repre- 
sented. The fliost probable account of the matter is, that his 
offence was, the propagation of new opinions concerning the 
gods, and particularly, teaching that the sun is an inanimate 
fiery substance, and consequently not a proper object of wor- 
ship. There can be no doubt that Anaxagoras, who was in- 
defatigable in his researches into nature, ventured, on many 
occasions, to contradict and oppose the vulgar opinions and 
superstitions, ft is related that he ridiculed the Athenian 
priests for predicting an unfortunate event from the unusual ap- 



ANAXAGORAS. 23 

pearance of a ram winch had but one horn ; and that, to con- 
vince the people that there was nothing in the affair which 
was not perfectly natural, he opened the head of the animal, 
and showed them that it was so constructed as necessarily to 
prevent the growth of the other horn. Such offensive free- 
doms as these were probably the cause of his persecution. 
Silenus, in the first book of his Histories, says, that in the 
archonship of Lysanias a large stone fell from heaven; and 
that in reference to this event Anaxagoras said, that the 
whole heaven was composed of stones, and that by its rapid 
revolutions they were all held together ; and when those revo- 
lutions get slower, they fall down. 

When one of his friends expressed regret on account of his 
banishment from Athens, he said, " It is not I who have lost 
the Athenians, but the Athenians who have lost me.' 1 Being 
asked just before his death, whether he wished to be carried 
for interment to Olazomene, his native city, he said, " It is un- 
necessary ; the way to the regions below is everywhere alike 
open." In reply to a message sent him, at that time, by the 
senate of Lampsacus, requesting him to inform them in what 
manner they might most acceptably express their respect for 
his memory after his decease, he said, "By ordaining that the 
day of my death be annually kept as a holiday in all the 
schools of Lampsacus." His request was complied with, and 
the custom remained for many centuries. He died about the 
age of seventy-two years. The inhabitants of Lampsacus ex- 
pressed their high opinion of his wisdom by erecting him a 
tomb. It is also said that two altars were raised in honor of 
his memory, one dedicated to Truth, the other to Mind, an ap- 
pellation which was given him on account of the doctrine 
which he taught concerning the origin and formation of na- 
ture. 

Two predictions are ascribed to him which were remarkably 
fulfilled ; one was, that on a certain day a stone would fall 
from the sun, and on the appointed day a stone did fall from 



24 ANAXILAUS ANAXIMANDER. 

the sun in a part of Thrace, near the river iEgos. Plutarch 
states that in his time this stone was not only shown but 
greatly reverenced by the Peloponnesians. 

At another time he signified, when the weather was fair, 
that there would be a heavy rain and storm, by going to the 
Olympic games in a shaggy skin, or leathern dress, prepared 
for such a change ; and as it did rain according to his predic- 
tion, the people honored him as though he possessed super- 
natural knowledge. 



ANAXILAUS. 

Anaxilatts of Larissa, who lived in the time of Augustus, 
professed himself a follower of Pythagoras, but chiefly that he 
might obtain the greater credit to. the pretensions which lie 
made to an intimate acquaintance with the mysteries of 
nature. Pliny relates several curious arts, b} 7 which he raised 
the wonder and terror of the ignorant multitude, among 
which was that of giving, a livid and ghastly hue to the coun- 
tenance by means of sulphureous flame. It is probable that 
he practised his deceptions under the notion of supernatural 
operations ; for he was banished from Italy, by the order of 
Augustus, for the crime of magic. 



ANAXIMANDEK 



Anaxlmandee, the son of Praxiadas, was a citizen of Miletus. 
He first taught philosophy in a public school, and is therefore 
often spoken of as the founder of the Ionic sect. He was born 
in the third year of the forty-second Olympiad. Ciecero culls 
him the friend and companion of Thales ; whence it is prob- 



"-X 



ANAXIMANDER. 25 

able that he was a native of Miletus. That he was employed 
in instructing youth, may be inferred from an anecdote related 
concerning him ; that, being laughed at for singing (that is, 
probably, reciting his verses) ill, he said, " We must endeavor 
to sing better, for the sake of the boys." Anaximander was 
the first who laid aside the defective method of oral tradition, 
and committed the principles of natural science to writing.' It 
is related of him, that he predicted an earthquake ; but, that 
he should have been able in the infancy of knowledge to do 
what is, at this day, beyond the reach of philosophy, is in- 
credible. He lived sixty-four years. 

There can be little doubt that mathematics and astronomy 
were indebted to Anaximander. He framed a connected series 
of geometrical truths, and wrote a summary of his doctrine. 
He was the first who undertook to delineate the surface of 
the earth, and mark the divisions of land and water upon an 
artificial globe. The invention of the sun-dial is ascribed to 
him. He also was the first discoverer of the gnomon; and he 
placed some in Lacedsemon, on the sun-dials there, as Pharori- 
nus says in his Universal History, and they showed the sol- 
stices and the equinoxes ; he also made clocks. He was the first 
person, too, who drew a map of the earth and sea, and he 
also made a globe ; and he published a concise statement of 
whatever opinions he embraced or entertained ; and this trea- 
tise was met with by Apollodorus, the Athenian. 

And Apollodorus, in his Chronicles, states, that in the second 
year of the fifty-eighth Olympiad, he was sixty-four years old. 
And soon after he died, having flourished much about the 
same time as Polycrates, the tyrant, of Samos. 



ANTISTHENES. 



ANTISTHENES. 



Antisthenes was born at Athens about the nineteenth 
Olympiad. His father was an Athenian^ his mother a Thra- 
cian, or, according to Plutarch, a Phrygian. 

Being on one occasion reproached because his mother was 
a Phrygian, he replied, " Cybele, the mother of the gods, was a 
Phrygian." 

He became the founder of a school, the sole object of which 
was to support a rigid moral discipline. 

In his youth he was engaged in military exploits, and ac- 
quired fame by the valor which he displayed in the battle of 
Tanagra. His first studies were under the direction of the 
sophist Gorgias, who instructed him in the art of rhetoric. 
Soon growing dissatisfied with the futile labors of this school, 
he sought for more substantial wisdom from Socrates. Capti- 
vated by the doctrine and the manner of his new master, he 
prevailed upon many young men, who had been his fellow- 
students under Gorgias, to accompany him. So great was his 
ardor for moral wisdom, that though he lived at Piraeus, 
which was at the distance of forty stadia from the city, he 
came daily to Athens to attend upon Socrates. This wise 
man, at the same time that he made morality the only subject 
of his instructions, powerfully recommended virtuous manners 
to his disciples by his own example. Despising the pursuits 
of avarice, vanity, and ambition, he sought the reward of vir- 
tue in virtue itself, and declined no labor or suffering which 
virtue required. This noble consistency of mind was the part 
of the character of Socrates -which Antisthenes chiefly ad- 
mired; and he resolved to make it the object of his diligent 
imitation. "Whilst he was a disciple of Socrates, he discovered 
his propensity towards severity of manners by the meanness 
of his dress. He frequently appeared in a thread-bare and 
ragged coat. Socrates, who had great penetration in dis- 



ANTISTHENES. 27 

covering the characters of men, remarking that Antisthenes 
took pains to expose rather than conceal the tattered state of 
his dress, said to him, "Why so ostentatious? Through your 
rags I see your vanity." 

After the death of Socrates, whilst all good men were la- 
menting his fate, and were indignant against his persecutors, 
Antisthenes, hy a seasonable jest, hastened the deserved pun- 
ishment of Melitus and Anytas. Meeting with certain young 
men from Pontus, who came to Athens with a design of at- 
tending upon Socrates, whose fame had reached their coun- 
try, he publicly introduced them to Anytas, assuring them 
that he far exceeded Socrates in wisdom. This sarcastic 
encomium inflamed the resentment of the Athenians who hap- 
pened to be present against the author of the disgrace which 
had been brought upon their city by their putting to death so 
excellent a man. The consequence was, that Anytas was soon 
banished, and Melitus sentenced to death. 

Whilst Plato and other disciples of Socrates were, after his 
death forming schools in Athens, Antisthenes chose for his 
school a public place of exercise without the walls of the city, 
called the Oynosargnm, or the Temple of the White Dog; 
whence some writers derive the name of the sect of which he 
was the founder. Others suppose that his followers were 
called Cynics from the snarling humor of their master. Here 
he inculcated, both by precept and example, a rigorous disci- 
pline. In order to accommodate his own manners to his doc- 
trine, he wore no other garment than a coarse cloak, suffered 
his beard to grow, and carried a wallet and staff like a wan> 
dering beggar. Eenouncing all the splendid luxuries of life, 
he contented himself with the most simple diet, and refrained 
from every kind of effeminate indulgence. In his discourses 
he censured the manners of the age with a degree of harsh- 
ness which produced him the surname of the Dog. He ex- 
pressed the utmost contempt for pleasure, accounting it the 
greatest evil, and saying that he would rather be mad than 



28 ANTISTHENES. 

addicted to a voluptuous manner of living. Towards the close 
of his life the gloomy cast of his mind and the moroseness of 
his temper increased to such a degree, as to render him 
troublesome to his friends, and an object of ridicule to his ene- 
mies. In his last illness he was fretful and impatient: tired 
of life, yet loth to die. When Diogenes, at that time, asked 
him whether he needed a friend, Antisthenes replied, " Where 
is the friend that can free me from my pain?" Diogenes pre- 
sented him with a dagger, saying, "Let this free you:" but 
Antisthenes answered, "I wish to be freed from pain, not 
from life." Neither his doctrine nor his manners were suf- 
ficiently inviting to procure him many followers. He paid 
little respect to the gods and the religion of his country ; but 
as might be expected from a disciple of Socrates, he thought 
justly concerning the Supreme Being. In his book which 
treats on Physics, says Cicero, he observes that " the gods 
of the people are many, but the God of nature is One." An- 
tisthenes wrote many books, of which none are extant, except 
two declamations under the names of Ajax and Ulysses. 

The sum of the moral doctrine of Antisthenes and the 
Cynic sect is this : — Virtue alone is a sufficient foundation for 
a happy life. Virtue consists, not in a vain ostentation of 
learning, or an idle display of words, but in a steady course 
of right conduct. Wisdom and virtue are the same. A wise 
man will always be contented with his condition, and will live 
rather according to the precepts of virtue, than according to 
the laws or customs of his country. Wisdom is a secure and 
impregnable fortress; virtue, armor which cannot be taken 
away. Whatever is honorable is good ; whatever is disgraceful 
is evil. Virtue is the only bond of friendship. It is better to 
associate with a few good men against a vicious multitude, 
than to join the vicious, however numerous, against the good. 
The love of pleasure is a temporary madness. 

He was also the first person who ever gave a definition of 
discourse ; saying, " Discourse is that which shows what any- 



ANTISTHENES. 29 

thing is or was." And he used continually to say, " I would 
rather go mad than feel pleasure." And, "One ought to 
attach one's self to such women as will thank one for it." He 
said once to a youth from Pontus, who was on the point of 
coming to him to he his pupil, and was asking him what 
things he wanted, " You want a new hook, and a new pen, 
and a new tablet ;" — meaning a new mind. And to a person 
who asked him from what country he had better marry a 
wife, he said, " If you marry a handsome woman, she will be 
common ;* if an ugly woman, she will be a punishment to you." 
He was told once that Plato spoke ill of him, and he replied, 
" It is a royal privilege to do well, and to be evil spoken of." 
"When he was being initiated into the mysteries of Orpheus, 
and the priest said that those who were initiated enjoyed 
many good things in the shades below, " Why, then," said he, 
"do not you die?" Being once reproached as not being the 
son of two free citizens, he said, "And I am not the son of two 
people skilled in wrestling ; nevertheless, I am a skilful wrest- 
ler." On one occasion he was asked why he had but few 
disciples, and said, " Because I drove them away with a silver 
rod." When he was asked why he reproved his pupils with 
bitter language, he said, "Physicians, too, use severe remedies 
for their patients." Once he saw an adulterer running away, 
and said, "O unhappy man! how much danger could you 
have avoided for one obol!" He used to say, as Hecaton tells 
us in his Apophthegms, "That it was better to fall among 
crows, than among flatterers ; for that they only devour the 
dead, but the others devour the living." When he was asked 
what was the most happy event that could take place in 
human life, he said, " To die while prosperous." 

On one occasion one of his friends was lamenting to him 
that he had lost his memoranda, and he said to him, " You 
ought to have written them on your mind, and not on paper." 

* There is a play on the similarity of the two sounds, koine, common, and 
poine, punishment. 

3* 



30 ANTISTHENES. 

A favorite saying of his was, " That envious people were de- 
voured by their own disposition, just as iron is by rust." 
Another was, " That those who wish to be immortal ought to 
live piously and justly." He used to say, too, " That cities 
were ruined when they were unable to distinguish worthless 
citizens from virtuous ones." 

On one occasion he was being praised by some wicked men, 
and said, "I am sadly afraid that I must have done some 
wicked thing." One of his favorite sayings was, " That the fel- 
lowship of brothers of one mind was stronger than any forti- 
fied city." He used to say, " That those things were the best 
for a man to take on a journey, which would float with him 
if he were shipwrecked." He was once reproached for being 
intimate with wicked men, and said, " Physicians also live 
with those who are sick ; and yet they do not catch fevers." 
He used to say, " that it was an absurd thing to clean a corn- 
field of tares, and in war to get rid of bad soldiers, and yet not 
to rid one's self in a city of the wicked citizens." "When he 
was asked what advantage he had ever derived from philoso- 
phy, he replied, "The advantage of being able to converse 
with myself." At a drinking party, a man once said to him, 
" Give us a song," and he replied, " Do you play us a tune on 
the flute." "When Diogenes asked him for a tunic, he bade 
him fold his cloak. He was asked on one occasion what 
learning was the most necessary, and he replied, " To unlearn 
one's bad habits." And he used to exhort those who found 
themselves ill spoken of, to endure it more than they would 
any one's throwing stones at them. He used to laugh at Plato 
as conceited ; accordingly, once when there was a fine proces- 
sion, seeing a horse neighing, he said to Plato, "I think you 
too would be a very frisky horse :" and he said this all the 
more, because Plato kept continually praising the horse. At 
another time, he had gone to see him when he was ill, and 
when he saw there a dish in which Plato had been sick, he 
said, " I see your bile there, but I do not see your conceit." 



ANTI8THENES. 31 

He used to advise the Athenians to pass a vote that asses 
were horses; and, as they thought that irrational, he said, 
" Why, those whom you make generals have never learnt to 
be really generals, they have only been voted such." 

A man said to him one day, "Many people praise you." 
"Why, what evil," said he, "have I done?" When he 
turned the rent in his cloak outside, Socrates seeing it, said to 
him, " I see your vanity through the hole in your cloak." On 
another occasion, the question was put to him by some one, as 
Phanias relates, in his treatise on the Philosophers of the So- 
cratic school, what a man could do to show himself an 
honorable and a virtuous man ; and he replied, " If you attend 
to those who understand the subject, and learn from them that 
you ought to shun the bad habits which you have." Some one 
was praising luxury in his hearing, and he said, "May the 
children of my enemies be luxurious." Seeing a young man 
place himself in a carefully studied attitude before a modeller, 
he said, " Tell me, if the brass could speak, on what would it 
pride itself?" And when the young man replied, "On its 
beauty." "Are you not then," said he, "ashamed to rejoice 
in the same thing as an inanimate piece of brass ?" A young 
man from Pontus once promised to recollect him, if a vessel 
of salt fish arrived ; and so he took him with him, and also an 
empty bag, and went to a woman who sold meal, and filled 
his sack and went away ; and when the woman asked him 
to pay for it, he said, " The young man will pay you, when 
the vessel of salt fish comes home." 

Whenever he saw a woman beautifully adorned, he would 
go off to her house, and desire her husband to bring forth his 
horse and his arms ; and then if he had such things, he would 
give him leave to indulge in luxury, for that he had the means 
of defending himself; but if he had theni not, then he would 
bid him strip his wife of her ornaments. 

And the doctrines he adopted were these. He used to insist 
that virtue was a thing which might be taught ; also, that the 



32 ANTISTHENES. 

nobly born and virtuously disposed, were the same people ; for 
that virtue was of itself sufficient for happiness, and was in 
need of nothing, except the strength of Socrates. He also 
looked upon virtue as a species of work, not wanting many 
arguments, or much instruction ; and he taught that the wise 
man was sufficient for himself ; for that everything that be- 
longed to any one else belonged to him. He considered ob- 
scurity of fame a good thing, and equally good with labor. 
And he used to say that the wise man would regulate his con- 
duct as a citizen, not according to the established laws of the 
state, but according to the law of virtue. And that he would 
marry for the sake of having children, selecting the most beau- 
tiful woman for his wife. And that he would love her ; for 
that the wise man alone knew what objects deserved love. 

Diodes also attributes the following apophthegms to him. 
" To the wise man, nothing is strange and nothing remote. The 
virtuous man is worthy to be loved. Good men are friends. It 
is right to make the brave and just one's allies. Virtue is a 
weapon of which a man cannot be deprived. It is better to 
fight with a few good men against all the wicked, than with 
many wicked men against a few good men. One should at- 
tend to one's enemies, for they are the first persons to detect 
one's errors. One should consider a just man as of more value 
than a relation. Virtue is the same in a man as in a woman. 
What is good is honorable, and what is bad is disgraceful. 
Think everything that is wicked, foreign. Prudence is the 
safest fortification ; for it can neither fall to pieces nor be be- 
trayed. One must prepare one's self a fortress in one's own 
impregnable thoughts." 

He also said, "As rust consumes iron so doth envy the 
heart ^ man." 

"The harmony of brethren is a stronger defence than a 
waii of brass." 

"The man who is afraid of another, whatever he may 
'■^ink of himself, is a slave." 



ANTISTHENES. 33 

"We ought to aim at such pleasures as follow labor, not at 
those which go before labor." 

" A feast is not pleasant without company, nor riches with- 
out virtue." 

" Him that contradicteth, we must not again contradict, but in- 
struct, for a mad man is not cured by another^ becoming mad." 

To some who applauded a piper he said, " He is a bad man 
or else he would never have been so good a piper." 

Being asked what a feast was, he said, " The occasion of sur- 
feits." 

He used to lecture in the Gymnasium, called Oynosarges, 
not far from the gates ; and some people say that it is from 
that place that the sect got the name of Cynics. And he him- 
self was called Haplocyon (downright dog.) 

He was the first person to set the fashion of doubling his 
cloak, as Diodes says, and he wore no other garment And he 
used to carry a stick and a wallet ; but Neanthes says that he 
was the first person who wore a cloak without folding it. But 
Sosicrates, in the third book of his Successions, says that Diod- 
orus, of Aspendos, let his beard grow, and used to carry a 
stick and a wallet. 

He is the only one of all the pupils of Socrates, whom Theo- 
pompus praises and speaks of as clever, and able to persuade 
whomsoever he pleased by the sweetness of his conversation. 
And this is plain, both from his own writings, and from the 
Banquet of Xenophon. He appears to have been the founder 
of the more manly Stoic school. 

He was the original cause of the apathy of Diogenes, the 
temperance of Crates and the patience of Zeno, having him- 
self, as it were, lain the foundations of the city which they 
afterwards built. And Xenophon says that in his conversa- 
tion and society, he was the most delightful of men, and in 
every respect the most temperate. 

So numerous were the books of Antisthenes, and so various 
their subjects, that Timon called him a universal chatterer. 



34 apollo srius. 



APOLLONIUS. 

Apolloistius Tyanetts was follower of the Pythagoric doc- 
trine and discipline. The principal circumstances of his life, 
as far as credit can be given to his fabulous biographer, Philos- 
tratus, are as follows : 

Apollonius, of an ancient and wealthy family in Tyana, a 
city of Capadocia, was born about the commencement of the 
Christian era. At fourteen years of age his father took him 
to Tarsus, to be instructed by Euthydemus, a rhetorician ; but 
he soon became dissatisfied with the luxury and indolence of 
the citizens, and obtained permission from his father to re- 
move, with his preceptor, to ^Egas, a neighboring town, 
where was a temple of Esculapius. Here he conversed with 
Platonists, Stoics, Peripatetics, and Epicureans, and became 
acquainted with their doctrines. But finding the Pythagorean 
tenets and discipline more consonant to his own views and 
temper, than those of any other sect, he made choice of Eux- 
enus for his preceptor in philosophy ; a man who indeed 
lodged his master's precepts in his memory, but paid little re- 
gard to them in practice. Apollonius, however, was not to 
be diverted from the strictness of the Pythagorean discipline 
even by the example of his preceptor. He refrained from 
animal food, and lived entirely upon fruits and herbs. He wore 
no article of clothing made of the skins of animals. He went 
bare-footed and suffered his hair to grow to its full length. 
He spent his time chiefly in the temple of Esculapius among 
the priests, by whom he was greatly admired. 

After having acquired reputation at iEgas, Apollonius de- 
termined to qualify himself for the office of a preceptor in phi- 
losophy by passing through the Pythagorean discipline of 
silence. Accordingly, he remained five years without once 
exercising the faculty of speech. During this time he chiefly 
resided in Pamphylia and Cilicia. "When his term of silence 



APOLLONITTS. 35 

expired, he visited Antioch, Ephesus, and other cities, declin- 
ing the society of the rude and illiterate, and conversing chiefly 
with the priests. At sun-rising he performed certain religious 
rites, which he disclosed only to those who had passed 
through the discipline of silence. He spent the morning in 
instructing his disciples, whom he encouraged to ask whatever 
questions they pleased. At noon he held a public assembly 
for popular discourse. His style was neither turgid nor 
abstruse, but truly Attic. Avoiding all prolixity, and every 
ironical mode of speech, he issued forth his dogmas with oracu- 
lar authority, saying, on every occasion, This I know, or, Such 
is my judgment ; herein imitating the manner of Pythagoras. 
Being asked why, instead of dogmatically asserting his tenets, 
he did not still continue to inquire; his answer was: "I have 
sought for truth, when I was young ; it becomes me now no 
longer to seek, but to teach what I have found." Apollonius, 
that he might still more perfectly resemble Pythagoras, deter- 
mined to travel through distant nations. He proposed his 
design to his disciples, who were seven in number, but they 
refused to accompany him. He therefore entered upon his 
expedition, attended only by two servants. At Ninus he took 
as his associate Damis, an inhabitant of that city, to whom he 
boasted that he was skilled in all languages, though he had 
never learned them, and that he even understood the language 
of beasts and birds. The ignorant Assyrian worshipped him 
as a god ; and, resigning himself implicitly to his direction, 
accompanied him wherever he went. 

At Babylon, Apollonius conversed with the Magi, receiving 
from them much instruction, and communicating to them 
many things in return ; but to these conferences Damis was 
not admitted. In his visit to India, he was admitted to an 
interview with the king, Phraortes, and was introduced by 
him to Iarchus, the eldest of the Indian gymnosophists. Ee- 
turning to Babylon, he passed from that city to Ionia, where 
he visited Ephesus, and several other places, teaching the doe* 



36 APOLLON1US. 

trine, and recommending the discipline, of Pythagoras. On 
his way to Greece, he conversed with the priests of Orphens 
at hi3 temple in Lesbos. Arriving at Athens at the time when 
the sacred mysteries were performing, Apollonius offered him- 
self for initiation ; hut the priest refused him, saying^ that it 
was not lawful to initiate an enchanter. He discoursed with 
the Athenians concerning sacrifices, and exhorted them to 
adopt a more frugal manner of living. 

After passing through, some other Grecian cities and the 
island of Crete, Apollonius went into Italy, with the design 
of visiting Eome. Just before this time, ISTero, probably 
either because he had been deceived by the pretensions of the 
magicians, or was apprehensive of some danger from their 
arts, gave orders that all those who practised magic should be 
banished from the city. The friends of Apollonius apprized 
him of the hazard which was likely, at this juncture, to attend 
the purposed visit to Eome ; and the alarm was so great, that, 
out of thirty-four persons who were his stated companions, 
only eight chose to accompany him thither. He nevertheless 
persevered in his resolution, and under the protection of the 
sacred habit obtained admission into the city. The next 
day he was conducted to the Consul Telesinus, who was in- 
clined to favor philosophers of every class, and obtained from 
him permission to visit the temples, and converse with the 
priests. 

From Eome Apollonius travelled westward to Spain. Here 
he made an unsuccessful attempt to incite the procurator of 
the province of Bsetica to a conspiracy against Nero. After 
the death of that tyrant he returned to Italy, on his way to 
Greece ; whence he proceeded to Egypt, where Vespasian was 
making use of every expedient to establish his power. That 
prince easily perceived that nothing would give him greater 
credit with the Egyptian populace than to have his cause 
espoused by one who was esteemed a favored minister of the 
gods, and therefore did not fail to show him every kind of at- 



APOLLONIUS. 37 

tention and respect. The philosopher, in return, adapted his 
measures to the views of the new emperor, and used all his 
influence among the people in support of Vespasian's author- 
ity. 

Upon the accession of Domitian, Apollonius was no sooner in- 
formed of the tyrannical proceedings of that emperor,and par- 
ticularly of his proscription of philosophers, than he assisted 
in raising a sedition against him, and in favor of Nerva, among 
the Egyptians ; so that Domitian thought it necessary to issue 
an order that he should be seized, and brought to Koine. Apol- 
lonius, being informed of the order, set out immediately, of 
his own accord, for that city. Upon his arrival he was 
brought to trial ; but his judge, the pre tor iElian, who had 
formerly known him in Egypt, was desirous to favor him, and 
so conducted the process that it terminated in his acquittal. 

Apollonius now passed over into Greece, and visited the 
temple of Jupiter at Olympia, the cave of Trophonius in Arca- 
dia, and other celebrated seats of religion. Wherever he went 
he gained new followers. At length he settled at Ephesus, 
and there formed a school in some degree similar to the an- 
cient Pythagorean college ; but with this material difference, 
that in the school of Apollonius the door of wisdom was open 
to all, and every one was permitted to speak and inquire 
freely. 

Concerning the fate of Apollonius, after he settled at Ephe- 
sus, nothing certain is related. The time, the place, and the 
manner of his death are unknown. It is probable that he 
lived to an extreme old age, and died in the reign of Nerva. 
Damis, who attached himself to this philosopher at Babylon, 
accompanied him in his subsequent travels, and after his 
death became his memorialist. Philostratus has loaded his 
account of the life of this extraordinary man with so many 
marvellous tales, that it is exceedingly difficult to determine 
what degree of credit is due to his narrative. He relates, for 
example, that while the mother of Apollonius was pregnant, 

4 



38 A P 0*L L O N I U S . 

the Egyptian divinity Proteus appeared to her, and told her 
that the child she should bring forth was a god ; that his 
birth was attended with a celestial light ; that in the Escula- 
pean temple at ^Egas he predicted future events ; that at the 
tomb of Achilles he had a conference with the ghost of that 
hero ; and that whilst he was publicly discoursing at Ephesus, 
he suddenly paused, as if struck with a panic, and then cried 
out, "Slay the tyrant," at the very instant when Domitian 
was cut off at Eome. If to these tales we add the accounts 
which Philostratus gives of the efficacy of the mere presence 
of Apollonius, without the utterance of a single word, in quell- 
ing popular tumults; of the chains of Prometheus, which 
Apollonius saw upon Mount Caucasus; of speaking trees, of 
pigmies, phoenixes, satyrs, and dragons, which he met with 
in his eastern tour ; and of other things equally wonderful ; it 
will be impossible to hesitate in ascribing the marvellous 
parts, at least, of Philostratus's narrative to his ingenuitj', or 
credulity. 

Different opinions have been entertained concerning the 
character of Apollonius. Some have supposed the whole 
series of extraordinary events related concerning him to have 
been the mere invention of Philostratus and others for the 
purpose of obstructing the progress of Christianity, and pro- 
viding a temporary prop for the falling edifice of paganism. 
Others, remarking that Apollonius had acquired a high degree 
of celebrity long before the time of his biographer, refer the 
origin of these tales to the philosopher himself; but with re- 
spect to the manner which this is to be done they are not 
agreed. Some apprehend that he was intimately acquainted 
with nature, and deeply skilled in medicinal arts, and that he 
applied his knowledge and skill to the purposes of imposture, 
that he might pass among a credulous multitude for something 
more than human ; while others imagine that he accomplished 
his fraudulent designs by means of a real intercourse with 
evil spirits. The truth probably is, that Apollonius was one 



APOLLONIUS. 39 

of those impostors who profess to practice magic arts, and 
perform other wonders, for the sake of acquiring fame, influ- 
ence, and profit, among the vulgar. In this light, even ac- 
cording to his own biographer, he was regarded by his con- 
temporaries, particularly by the priests of the Eleusinian and 
Trophonian mysteries, and by Euphrates, an Alexandrian philos- 
opher. Lucian, who lived in the time of Trajan, and Apuleins, 
who flourished under Antoninus Pius, rank him among the most 
celebrated magicians. Origen, who had seen a life of Apollo- 
nius, now lost, which was written by Maragenes, prior to that 
of Philostratus, writes thus: — "Concerning magic, we shall 
only say, that whoever is desirous of knowing whether philos- 
ophers are to be imposed upon by this art, let him read the 
memoirs of Apollonius, written by Maragenes, who, though a 
philosopher, and not a Christian, says, that philosophers of no 
mean repute were deceived by the magical arts of Apollonius, 
and visited him as a person capable of predicting future 
events." Eusebius, in his answer to Hierocles, who wrote a 
treatise, in which he drew a comparison between Jesus 
Christ and Apollonius Tyaneus, speaks of the latter as a man 
who was eminently skilled in every kind of human wisdom, 
but who affected powers beyond the reach of philosophy, and 
assumed the Pythagorean manner of living as a mask for his 
impostures. The narrative of his life, by Philostratus, though 
doubtless abounding with fictions, serves at least to confirm 
this opinion. 

How successfully Apollonius practised the arts of imposture, 
sufficiently appears from the events which followed. The 
dominion over the minds of men, which he found means to 
establish during his life, remained and increased after his 
death, so that he long continued to be ranked among the divin- 
ities. The inhabitants of Tyana, proud of the honor of call- 
ing him their fellow-citizen, dedicated a temple to his name ; 
and the same privileges were granted to them as had usually 
been conferred upon those cities where temples were raised, 



40 ARCESILAUS. 

and sacred rites performed, in honor of the emperors. Aure- 
lian, out of respect to his memory, showed the Tyaneans 
peculiar favor. Adrian took great pains to collect his writ- 
ings, and preserve them in his library : Caracalla dedicated a 
temple to him, as to a divinity among men ; and Alexander 
Severus, in his domestic temple, kept the image of Apollo- 
nius, with those of Abraham, Orpheus, and Christ, and paid 
them divine honors. The common people, in the meantime, 
ranked Apollonius in the number of deified men, and made 
use of his name in incantations ; and even among the philoso- 
phers of the Eclectic sect he was regarded as a being of a 
superior order, who partook of a middle nature between gods 
and men. 



AKCESILAUS 



Aecesilatts was the son of Seuthes or Scythes, and a native 
of Pitane in iEoiia. 

He was the original founder of the Middle Academy, and 
the first man who professed to suspend the declaration of his 
judgment, because of the contrarieties of the reasons alleged 
on either side. He was likewise the first who attempted to 
argue on both sides of a question, and who also made the 
method of discussion, which had been handed down by Plato, 
by means of question and answer, more contentious than be- 
fore. 

He became a pupil of Xanthus the musician, and after that 
attended the lectures of Theophrastus, and subsequently came 
over to the Academy to Crantor. For Msereas his brother, 
urged him to apply himself to rhetoric ; but he himself had a 
preference for philosophy, and when he became much at- 
tached to him Crantor asked him, quoting a line out of the 
Andromeda of Euripides : — 



AltCESILAUS. 41 

O virgin, if I save you, will you thank me ? 

And he replied by quoting the next line to it : — 

O take me to you, stranger, as your slave, 
Or wife, or what you please. 

And ever after that they became very intimate, so that they 
say Theophrastus was much annoyed, and said, " That a most 
ingenious and well-disposed young man had deserted his 
school." 

For he was not only very impressive in his discourse, and 
displayed a great deal of learning in it, but he also tried his 
hand at poetry, and there is extant an epigram which is at- 
tributed to him, addressed to Attalus, which is a follows : — 

Pergamus is not famed for arms alone, 

But often hears its praise resound 
For its flue horses, at the holy Pisa. 

Yet, if a mortal may declare, 
Its fate as hidden in the breast of Jove, 

It will be famous for its woes. 

There is another addressed to Mendorus the son Eudamus, 
who was attached to one of his fellow pupils : — 

Phrygia is a distant land, and so 

Is sacred Thyatire, and Cadanade, 

Your country Menodorus. But from all, 

As the unvaried song of bards relates, 

An equal road lies to Acheron, 

That dark unmentioned river; so you lie 

Here far from home ; and here Eudamus raises 

This tomb above your bones, for he did love you, 

Though you were poor, with an undying love. 

But he admired Homer above all poets, and always used to 
read a portion of his works before going to sleep ; and in the 
morning he would say that he was going to the object of his 
love, when he was going to read him. He said, too, that Pin- 
dar was a wonderful man for filling the voice, and pouring 
forth an abundant variety of words and expressions. He also, 
when he was a young man, wrote a criticism on Ion. 
4.* 



454 ARCESILAUS. 

And he was a pupil likewise of Hipponieus, the geonietri- 
can, whom he used to ridicule on other points as being lazy and 
gaping; hut he admitted that in his own profession he was 
clear sighted enough, and said that geometry had flown into 
his mouth while he was yawning. And when he went out of 
his mind, he took him to his own house, and took care of him 
till he recovered his senses. . 

And when Orates died, he succeeded him in the presidency 
of his schools, a man of the name of Socrates willingly yield- 
ing to him. 

And as he suspended his judgment on every point, he 
never, as it is said, wrote one single book. But others say 
that he was once detected correcting some passages in a work 
of his; and some assert that he published it, while others deny 
it, and affirm that he threw it into the fire. 

He was exceedingly fond of employing axioms, very concise 
in his diction, and when speaking he laid an emphasis on each 
separate word. 

He was also very fond of attacking others, and very free 
spoken, on which account Timon in another passage speaks 
of him thus : — 

You'll not escape all notice while you thus 
Attack the young man with your biting sarcasm. 

Once, when a young man was arguing against him with 
more boldness than usual, he said, "Will no one stop his 
mouth with the knout?"* But to a man who lay under the 
general imputation of low debauchery, and who argued with 
him that one thing was not greater than another, he asked 
him whether a cup holding two pints was not larger than one 
which held only one. There was a certain Ohian named 
Hemon, exceedingly ugly, but who fancied himself good look- 
ing, and always went about in fine clothes ; this man asked 

* Perhaps there is a pun here ; astragalos means not only a knout composed 
of small bones strung together, but also a die. 



ARCESILAUS. 43 

him one day, " If he thought that a wise man could feel at- 
tachment to him ;" " Why should he not," said he, " when 
they love even those who are less handsome than you, and 
not so well-dressed either?" and when the man, though one 
of the vilest characters possible, said to Arcesilaus as if he 
were addressing a very rigid man : — 

O, noble man, may I a question put, 
Or must I hold my tongue ? 

Arcesilaus replied : — 

O wretched woman, why do you thus roughen 
Your voice, not speaking in your usual manner ? 

And once, when plagued by a chattering fellow of low ex- 
traction, he said : — 

The sons of slaves are always talking vilely. 

Another time, when a talkative man was giving utterance 
to a great deal of nonsense, he said, that " He had not had a 
nurse who was severe enough." And to some people he never 
gave any answer at all. On one occasion a usurer who made 
pretence to some learning, said in his hearing that he did not 
know something or other, on which he rejoined : — 

For often times the passing winds do fill 

The female bird, except when big with young.* 

And the lines come out of the ^Enomaus of Sophocles. He 
once reminded a certain dialetician, a pupil of Aleximes, who 
was unable to explain correctly some saying of his master, of 
what had been done by Philoxenus to some brick-makers. 
For when they were singing some of his songs very badly he 
came upon them, and trampled their bricks under foot, say- 
ing, " As you spoil my works so will I spoil yours." 

And he used to be very indignant with those who neglected 
proper opportunities of applying themselves to learning ; and 
he had a peculiar habit, while conversing, of using the ex- 

* There is a pun here whieh is untranslateable. The Greek word meaning 
usury, and also offspring or delivery. 



44 ARCESILAUS. 

pression, " I think," and " So and so," naming the person, 
" will not agree to this." And this was imitated by several 
of his pupils, who copied also his style of expression and every- 
thing about him. He was a man very ready at inventing 
new words, and very quick at meeting objections, and at 
bringing round the conversation to the subject before him, 
and at adapting it to every occasion, and he was the most 
convincing speaker that could be found, on which account 
numbers of people nocked to his school, in spite of being some- 
what alarmed at his severity, which however they bore with 
complacency for he was a very kind man, and one who in- 
spired his hearers with abundant hope, and in his manner of 
life he was very affable and liberal, always ready to do any 
one a service without any parade, and shrinking from any ex- 
pression of gratitude on the part of those whom he had 
obliged. Accordingly once, when he had gone to visit Ctesi- 
bius who was ill, seeing him in great distress from want, he 
secretly slipped his purse under his pillow ; and when Ctesi- 
bius found it, " This," said he " is the amusement of Arcesi- 
laus." And at another time he sent him a thousand drachmas. 
He it was also who introduced Archias the Arcadian to Eu- 
menes, and who procured him many favors from him. 

And being a very liberal man and utterly regardless of 
money, he made the most splendid display of silver plate, 
and in his exhibition of gold plate he vied with that of Arche- 
crates and Callecrates; and he was constantly assisting and 
contributing to the wants of others with money ; and once, 
when some one had borrowed from him some articles of silver 
plate to help him entertain his friends, and did not offer to 
return them, he never asked for them back or reclaimed 
them ; but some say that he lent them with the purpose that 
they should be kept, and that when the man returned them, 
he made him a present of them as he was a poor man. He 
had also property in Pitana, the revenues from which were 
transmitted to him by his brother Pylades. 



ARCESILAUS. 45 

Moreover, Eume.nes, the son of Philetserus, supplied him 
with many things, on which account he was the only king to 
whom he addressed any of his discourses. And when many 
philosophers paid court to Antigonus and went out to meet 
him when he arrived, he himself kept quiet, not wishing to 
make his acquaintance. But he was a great friend of Hiero- 
cles, the governor of the harbors of Munychia and the Piraeus ; 
and at festivals he always paid him a visit. And when he 
constantly endeavored to persuade him to pay his respects to 
Antigonus, he would not; but though he accompanied him 
as far as his gates, he turned back himself. And after the sea- 
fight of Antigonus, when many people went to him and wrote 
him letters to comfort him for his defeat, he neither went nor 
wrote ; but still in the service of his country, he went to De- 
nse trias as an ambassador to Antigonus, and succeeded in the 
object of his mission. 

And he spent all his time in the Academy, and avoided 
meddling with public affairs, but at times he would spend 
some days in the Piraeus of Athens, discoursing on philo- 
sophical subjects, from his friendship for Hierocles, which 
conduct of his gave rise to unfavorable reports being raised 
against him by some people. 

Being a man of very expensive habits, for he was in this 
respect a sort of second Aristippus, he often went to dine with 
his friends. He also lived openly with Theodote and Philsete, 
two courtesans of Elis ; and to those who reproached him for 
this conduct, he used to quote the opinions of Aristippus. He 
was also very fond of the society of young men and of a very 
affectionate disposition, on which account Aristi, the Ohian, 
a Stoic philosopher, used to accuse him of being a corrupter 
of the youth of the city, and a profligate man. He is said 
also to have been greatly attached to Demetrius, who sailed 
to Oyrene, and to Cleochares of Mydea, of whom he said to 
his messmates, that he wished to open the door to him but 
that he prevented him. 



46 ARCESILAUS. ' 

Demochares the son of Laches, and Pythocles the son of 
Bugelus, were also among his friends, and he said that he 
humored them in all their wishes because of his great patience. 
And, on this account, those people to whom I have before 
alluded, used to attack him and ridicule him as a popularity 
hunter and vain-glorious man. And they set upon him very 
violently at an entertainment given by Hieronymus, the Peri- 
patetic, when he invited his friends on the birthday of Alcy- 
meus, the son of Antigonus, on which occasion Antigonus sent 
him a large sum of money to promote the conviviality. On 
this occasion, as he avoided all discussion during the continu- 
ance of the banquet, when Aridelus proposed to him a ques- 
tion which required some deliberation, and entreated him to 
discourse upon it, it is said that he replied, " But this is more 
especially the business of philosophy, to know the proper time 
for everything." With reference to the charge that was 
brought against him of being a popularity hunter, Tirnon 
speaks, among other matters, mentioning it in the following 
manner : — 

He spoke and glided quick among the crowd, 

They gazed on him as finches who behold 

An owl among them. You then please the people ! 

Alas, poor fool, 'lis no great matter that ; 

Why give yourself such airs for such a trifle ? 

However, in all other respects he was so free from vanity, that 
he used to advise his pupils to become the disciples of other 
men ; and once, when a young man from Chios was not satis- 
fied with his school, but preferred that of Hieronymus, whom 
I have mentioned before, he himself took him and introduced 
him to that philosopher, recommending him to preserve his 
regularity of conduct. And there is a very witty saying of his 
recorded. For when some one asked him once, why people 
left other schools to go to the Epicureans, but no one left the 
Epicureans to join the other sects, he replied, " People some- 
times make eunuchs of men, but no one can ever make a man 
of an eunuch." 



AKCHYTAS. 47 

At last, when he was near his end, he left all his property 
to his brother Pylades. He never married a wife, and never 
had any children. He made three copies of his will, and de- 
posited one in Eretria with Araphicritus, and one at Athens 
with some of his friends, and the third he sent to his own home 
to Thanmasias, one of his relations, entreating him to keep it. 

He died, as Hermippus relates, after having drunk an excess- 
ive quantity of wine, and then became delirious, when he 
was seventy-five years old ; and he was more beloved by the 
Athenians than any one else had ever been. And we have 
written the following epigram on him ; — 

wise Arcesilaus, why didst thou drink 
So vast a quantity of unmixed wine, 

As to lose all your senses, and then die ? 

1 pi ty you not so much for your death, 
As for the insult that you thus did offer 

The Muses, by your sad excess in wine. __ . 



AECHYTAS. 



Archttas of Tarentum acquired such celebrity for his 
knowledge of philosophy that many illustrious names are found 
amongst his disciples. He prudently withheld all chastise- 
ment from his servants and inferiors when in a state of 
passionate excitement. To one of his dependents who had 
offended him, he said, " It is well for you that I am angry ; 
otherwise I know not what you might expect." He taught 
that virtue should be pursued for its own sake in every condi- 
tion of life : that the mind is more injured by prosperity than 
by adversity, and that there is no pestilence so destructive to 
human happiness as pleasure. 

He was a Pythagorean ; and he it was who saved Plato's 
life by means of a letter, when he was in danger of being put 
to death by Dionysius. 



48 ARI8TIPPUS. 

He was a man held in very general esteem on account of 
his universal virtue ; and he was seven times appointed gene- 
ral of his countrymen, when no one else had ever held the 
office for more than one year, as the law forbade it to be held 
for a longer period. 

Aristoxenus says, that this Pythagorean was never once de- 
feated while acting as general. But that as he was attacked by 
envy, he once gave up his command, and his army was imme- 
diately taken prisoner. 

He was the first person who applied mathematical princi- 
ples to mechanics, and reduced them to a system ; and the 
first also who gave a methodical impulse to descriptive geom- 
etry in seeking, in the section of a demicylinder for a pro- 
portional mean, which should enable him to find the double 
of a given cube. He was also the first person who ever gave 
the geometrical measure of a cube, as Plato mentions in his 
Eepublic. 

He invented cranes and screws, and made a pigeon of 
wood that flew, but when she once rested could not rise. 

He said it is as hard to find a man without deceit, as a fish 
without bones. Horace states that he perished by shipwreck. 



ARISTIPPUS. 



Aeistippus was by birth a Cyrenean, but he came to Ath- 
ens, as iEschines says, having been attracted thither by the 
fame of Socrates. 

He, having professed himself a Sophist, as Phanias, of Ere- 
sus, the Peripatetic, informs us, was the first of the pupils of 
Socrates who exacted money from his pupils, and who sent 
money to his master. And once he sent him twenty drach- 
mas, but had them sent back again, as Socrates said that his 



ARISTIPPUS. 49 

dastuon would not allow hint to accept them ; for, in fact, he 
was indignant at having them offered to him. 

He was a man very quick at adapting himself to every kind 
of place, and time, and person, and he easily supported every 
change of fortune. 

Yet Aristippus every dress became, 
In every various state of life the same. 

For which reason he was in greater favor with Dionysius 
than any of the others, as he always made the best of exist- 
ing circumstances. For he enjoyed what was before him 
pleasantly, and he did not toil to pfl^ure himself the enjoy- 
ment of what was not present. On which account Diogenes 
used to call him the king's dog. And Timon used to snarl at 
him as too luxurious, speaking somewhat in this fashion : — 

Like the effeminate mind of Aristippus, 

Who, as he said, by touch could judge of falsehood. 

They say that he once ordered a partridge to be bought for 
him at the price of fifty drachmas, and when some one blamed 
him, " And would not you," said he, "have bought it if it had 
cost an obol ?" And when he said he would, " "Well," replied 
Aristippus, " fifty drachmas are no more to me." 

Dionysius once bade Mm select which he pleased of three 
beautiful courtesans, and he carried off all three, saying that 
even Paris did not get any good by preferring one beauty to. 
the rest. However, they say, that when he had carried them 
as far as the vestibule, he dismissed them ; so easily inclined 
was he to select or to disregard things. On which account 
Strato, or, as others will have it, Plato, said to him, " You are 
the only man to whom it is given to wear both a whole cloak 
and rags." Once when Dionysius spit at him, he put up with 
it ; and when some one found fault with him, he said, " Men 
endure being wetted by the sea in order to catch a tench, and 
shall not I endure to be sprinkled with wine to catch a stur- 
geon ?" 

5 



50 AEISTIPPUS. 

Once Diogenes, who was washing vegetables, ridiculed him 
as he passed by, and said, "If you had learned to eat these 
vegetables, you would not have been a slave in the palace of 
a tyrant." But Aristippus replied, " And you, if you had 
known how to behave among men, would not have been 
washing vegetables." Being asked once what advantage he 
had derived from philosophy, he said, " The power of con- 
versing without embarrassment with all classes of men." 
"When he was reproached for living extravagantly, he replied, 
" If extravagance had been a fault, it would not have had a 
place in the festivals of the gods." At another time he was 
asked what advantage pnilosophers had over other men ; and 
he replied, " If all the laws should be abrogated, we should 
still live in the same manner as we do now." Once, when 
Dionysius asked him why the philosophers haunt the doors of 
the rich, but the rich do not frequent those of the philoso- 
phers, he said, " Because the first know what they want, but 
the second do not." 

On one occasion he was reproached by Plato for living in an 
expensive way ; and he replied, " Does not Dionysius seem to 
you to be a good man?" And as he said that he did ; " And 
yet," said he, " he lives in a more expensive manner than I 
do, so that there is no impossibility in a person's living both 
expensively and well at the same time." He was asked once 
in what educated men are superior to uneducated men ; and 
answered, " Just as broken horses are superior to those that 
are unbroken." On another occasion he was going into the 
house of a courtesan, and when one of the young men who 
were with him blushed, he said, " It is not the going into such 
a house that is bad, but the not being able to go out." Once 
a man proposed a riddle to him, and said, " Solve it." " Why, 
you silly fellow," said Aristippus, " do you wish me to loose 
what gives us trouble, even while it is in bonds ?" A saying 
of his was, that " it was better to be a beggar than an ignorant 
person ; for that a beggar only wants money, but an ignorant 



ARISTIPPUS. 51 

person wants humanity." Once when he was abused, he was 
going away, and as his adversary pursued him and said, " Why 
are you going away?" "Because," said he, "you have a 
license for speaking ill ; but I have another for declining to 
hear ill." When some one said that he always saw the phi- 
losophers at the doors of the rich men, he said, " And the 
physicians also are always seen at the doors of their patients ; 
but still no one would choose for this reason to be an invalid 
rather than a physician." 

Once it happened, that when he was sailing to Corinth, he 
was overtaken by a violent storm ; and when somebody said, 
" We common individuals are not afraid, but you philosophers 
are behaving like cowards;" he said, "Yery likely, for we 
have not both of us the same kind of souls at stake." Seeing 
a man who prided himself on the variety of his learning and 
accomplishments, he said, "Those who eat most, and who 
take the most exercise, are not in better health than they who 
eat just as much as is good for them ; and in the same way it 
is not those Avho know a great many things, but they who 
know what is useful, who are valuable men." He gave ad- 
mirable advice to his daughter Aretes, teaching her to despise 
superfluity. And being asked by some one in what respect 
his son would be better if he received a careful education, he 
replied, " If he gets no other good, at all events, when he is 
at the theatre, he will not be one stone sitting upon another." 
Once, when some one brought his son, to introduce him, to 
be educated, he demanded five hundred drachmas ; and when 
the father said, " Why, for such a price as that I can buy a 
slave." " Buy him then," he replied, " and you will have a 
pair." 

It was a saying of his that he took money from his acquaint- 
ances, not in order to use it himself, but to make them aware 
in what they ought to spend their money. On one occasion, 
being reproached for having employed a hired advocate in a 
cause that he had depending : " Why not," said he ; " when 



52 ARISTIPPUS. 

I have a dinner, I hire a cook." Once he was compelled by 
Dionysius to repeat some philosophical sentiment ; M It is an 
absurdity," said he, " for you to learn of me how to speak, 
and yet to teach me when I ought to speak ;" and as Dio- 
nysius was offended at this, he placed him at the lowest end 
of the table ; on which Aristippus said, " You wish to make 
this place more respectable." A man was one day boasting 
of his skill as a diver ; " Are you not ashamed," said Aristip- 
pus, " to value yourself upon that which every dolphin can do 
better?" On one occasion he was asked in what respect a 
wise man is superior to one who is not wise ; and his answer 
was, " Send them both naked among strangers, and you will 
find out." 

As a commentary upon this last saying take the following. 
In his way from Corinth to Asia, he was shipwrecked upon the 
island of Rhodes. Accidentally observing, as he came on shore, 
a geometrical diagram upon the sand, he said to his compan- 
ions, " Take courage, I see the footsteps of men." When 
they arrived at the principal town of the island, the philos- 
opher soon found means to engage the attention of the inhab- 
itants, and procured an hospitable reception for himself and 
his fellow-travellers ; a fact which confirms one of this philoso- 
pher's aphorisms ; " If you ask what advantage a man of learn- 
ing has above one who is illiterate, send them together among 
strangers, and you will see." 

To a man who was boasting of being able to drink a large 
quantity without getting drunk he said, " A mule can do the 
same thing." 

"When a person once blamed him for taking money from his 
pupils, after having been himself a pupil of Socrates : " To be 
sure I do," he replied, " for Socrates too, when some friends 
sent their corn and wine, accepted a little, and sent the rest 
back ; for he had the chief men of the Athenians for his pur- 
veyors. But I have only Eutychides, whom I have bought 
with money." And he used to live with Lais the courtesan, 



ARISTIPPUS. 53 

as Sotion tells us in the Second Book of Lis Successions. Ac- 
cordingly, when some one reproached him on her account, 
he made answer, " I possess her, hut I am not possessed by 
her : since the hest thing is to possess pleasures without heing 
their slave, not to he devoid of pleasures." When some one 
blamed him for the expense he was at about his food, he said, 
" Would you not have bought those things yourself if they had 
cost three obols?" And when the other admitted that he 
would, " Then," said he, " it is not that I am fond of pleasure, 
but that you are fond of money." On one occasion, when 
Simus, the steward of Dionysius, was showing him a magni- 
ficent house, paved with marble (but Simus was a Phrygian, 
and a great toper), he hawked up a quantity of saliva and spit 
in his face ; and when Simus was indignant at this, he said, 
" I could not find a more suitable place to spit in." 

Charondas, or as some say, Phsedon, asked him once, "Who 
are the people who use perfumes?" "I do," said he, 
" wretched man that I am, and the king of the Persians is still 
more wretched than I ; but, recollect, that as no animal is the 
worse for having a pleasant scent, so neither is a man ; but 
plague take those wretches who abuse our beautiful unguents." 
On another occasion, he was asked how Socrates died ; and he 
made answer, " As I should wish to die myself." When Poly- 
xenus, the Sophist, came to his house and beheld his women, 
and the costly preparation that was made for dinner, and then 
blamed him for all this luxury, Aristippus after awhile said, 
" Can you stay with me to day ?" and when Polyxenus con- 
sented, " Why then," said he, " did you blame me? it seems 
that you blame not the luxury, but the expense of it." When 
his servant was once carrying some money along the road, 
and was oppressed by the weight of it (as Bion relates in his 
Dissertations), he said to him, "Drop what is beyond your 
strength, and only carry what you can." Once he was at sea, 
and seeing a pirate vessel at a distance, he began to count his 
money ; and then he let it drop into the sea, as if uninten- 

5* 



54 ARISTIPPUS. 

tionally, and began to bewail bis loss ; but others say that he 
said besides, that it was better for the money to be lost for the 
sake of Aristippus, than Aristippus for the sake of his money. 
On one occasion, when Dionysius asked him why he had 
come, he said, to give others a share of what he had, and to 
receive a share of what he had not ; but some report that his 
answer was, " When I wanted wisdom, I went to Socrates ; 
but now that I want money, I have come to you." He found 
fault with men, because when they are at sales, they examine 
the articles offered very carefully, but yet they approve of 
men's lives without any examination. Though some attribute 
this speech to Diogenes. They say that once at a banquet, 
Dionysius desired all the guests to dance in purple garments ; 
but Plato refused, saying : — 

" I could not wear a woman's robe, when I 
Was born a man, and of a manly race." 

But Aristippus took the garment, and when he was about 
to dance, he said very wittily : — 

" She who is chaste, will not corrupted be 
By Bacchanalian revels." 

He was once asking a favor of Dionysius for a friend, and 
when he could not prevail, he fell at his feet ; and when some 
one reproached him for such conduct, he said, " It is not I who 
am to blame, but Dionysius who has his ears in his feet." 
When he was staying in Asia, and was taken prisoner by Ar- 
taphernes the Satrap, some one said to him, "Are you still cheer- 
ful and sanguine?" "When, you silly fellow," he replied, " can 
I have more reason to be cheerful than now when I am on 
the point of conversing with Artaphernes?" It used to be a 
saying of his, that those who enjoyed the encyclic course of 
education, but who had omitted philosophy, were like the 
suitors of Penelope ; for that they gained over Melantho and 
Polydora and the other maid-servants, and found it easier to 
do that than to marry the mistress. And Ariston said in like 



A R 1ST I FPUS. 55 

manner, that Ulysses when he had gone to the shades below, 
saw and conversed with nearly all the dead in those regions, 
but could not get a sight of the Queen herself. 

On another occasion, Aristippus being asked what were the 
most necessary things for well-born boys to learn, said, " Those 
things which they will put in practice when they become 
men." And when some one reproached him for having come 
from Socrates to Dionysius, his reply was, " I went to Socra- 
tes because I wanted instruction, and I have come to Dionysius 
because I want diversion." As he had made money by having 
pupils, Socrates once said to him, "Where did you get so 
much ?" and he answered, " Where you got a little." One day, 
when he had received some money from Dionysius, and Plato 
had received a book, he said to a man who jeered him, " The 
fact is, money is what I want, and books what Plato wants." 
One day he asked Dionysius for some money, who said, " But 
you told me that a wise man would never be in want ;" " Give 
me some," Aristippus rejoined, " and then we will discuss that 
point ;" Dionysius gave him some, " Xow then," said he, "you 
see that I do not want money." When Dionysius said to 
him: — 

"For he who does frequent a tyrant's court 
Becomes his slave, though free when first he came :" 

He took him up, and replied : — 

K That man is hut a slave who comes as free." 

He once quarrelled with iEschines, and presently afterwards 
said to him, " Shall we not make it up of our own accord, and 
cease this folly ; but will you wait till some blockhead recon- 
ciles us over our cups ?" u With all my heart," said iEschines, 
"Kecollect, then," said Aristippus, " that I, who am older than 
you, have made the first advances." And JEschines an- 
swered, " You say well, by Juno, since you are far better than 
I ; for I began the quarrel, but you begin the friendship." And 
these are anecdotes which are told of him. 



56 



ARI8T0N, 



ARISTON. 



Aeiston the Bald, a native of Chios, surnamed the Scion, 
said, that the chief good was to live in perfect indifference to 
all those things which are of an intermediate character be- 
tween virtue and vice; making not the slightest difference 
between them, but regarding them all on a footing of equality. 
For that the wise man resembles a good actor, who, whether 
he is filling the part of Agamemnon or Thersites, will perform 
them both equally well. 

And he discarded altogether the topic of physics and of 
logic, saying that the one was above us, and that the other 
had nothing to do with us ; and that the only branch of phi- 
losophy with which we had any real concern was ethics. 

He also said that dialectic reasonings were like cobwebs, 
which, although they seem to be put together on principles 
of art, are utterly useless. And he did not introduce many 
virtues into his scheme, as Zeno did ; nor one virtue under 
a great many names, as the Megaric philosophers did ; but 
defined virtue as consisting in behaving in a certain manner 
with reference to a certain thing. And as he philosophized in 
this manner, and carried on his discussions in the Oynos- 
arges, he got so much influence as to be called a founder of a 
sect. Accordingly, Miltiades and Diphilus were called Aris- 
toneans. 

He was a man of very persuasive eloquence, and one who 
could adapt himself well to the humors of a multitude. On 
which account Timon says of him : — 

And one, who from Ariston's wily race 
Traced his descent. 

Diodes, the Magnesian, tells us, that Ariston having fallen 
in with Polemo, passed over to his school, at a time when 
Zeno was lying ill with a long sickness. The Stoic doctrine 
to which he was most attached, was the one that the wise 



ARISTOTLE. 57 

man is never guided by opinions. But Persseus argued against 
this, and caused one of two twin brothers to place a deposit 
in his hands, and then caused the other to reclaim it ; and 
thus he convicted him, as he was in doubt on this point, and 
therefore forced to act on opinion. He was a great enemy of 
Arcesilaus. And once, seeing a bull of a monstrous conform- 
ation, having a womb, he said, " Alas ! here is an argument 
for Arcesilaus against the evidence of his senses." On an- 
other occasion, when a philosopher of the academy said 
that he did not comprehend anything, he said to him, " Do 
not you even see the man who is sitting next to you?" 
And as he said that he did not, he said : — 

Who then has blinded you, who 's been so harsh, 
As thus to rob you of your beaming eyes ? 

It is said that he, being bald, got a stroke of the sun, 
and so died. And we have written a jesting epigram on 
him in Scayon iambics, in the following terms : — 

Why, O Ariston, being old and bald, 
Did you allow the sun to roast your crown ? 
Thus, in an unbecoming search for warmth, 
Against your will, you 've founUlftut chilly Hell. 



ARISTOTLE. 



Aristotle was a native of Stagira, a town of Thrace, on 
the borders of the bay of Strymon, which at that time was 
subject to Philip of Macedon. His father was a physician, 
named Mcomachus ; his mother's name was Estiada. From 
the place of his birth he is called the Stagyrite. Ancient 
writers are generally agreed in fixing the time of his birth in 
the first year of the ninety-ninth Olympiad. He received the 
first rudiments of learning from Proxenus, of Atarna, in 
Mysia, of whom he always retained a respectful remembrance. 



58 ARISTOTLE. 

In gratitude for the care which he had taken of his early edu- 
cation, he afterwards honored his memory with a statue, in- 
structed his son Nicanor in the liberal sciences, and adopted 
him as his heir. At the age of seventeen Aristotle went to 
Athens, and devoted himself to the study of philosophy in 
the school of Plato. The uncommon acuteness of his appre- 
hension, and his indefatigable industry, soon attracted the 
attention of Plato, and obtained his applause. Plato used to 
call him the Mind of the school ; and to say when he was 
absent, " Intellect is not here." His acquaintance with books 
was extensive and accurate, as sufficiently appears from the 
concise abridgment of opinions, and the numerous quotations 
which are found in his works. According to Strabo, he was 
the first person who formed a library. Aristotle continued 
in the academy till the death of Plato, that is, till the thirty- 
seventh year of his age. After the death of his master he 
erected a monument to his memory, on which he inscribed an 
epitaph expressive of the highest respect, as follows : — 

To Plato's sacred name this tomb is reared, 
A name by Aristotle long revered ! 
Far hence, ye vulgar herd ! nor dare to stain 
With impious^mrise this ever hallow'd fane. 

He likewise wrote an oration and elegies in praise of Plato, 
and gave other proofs of respect for his memory. Little re- 
gard is therefore due to the improbable tale related by Aris- 
toxenus, of a quarrel between Aristotle and Plato, which 
terminated in a temporary exclusion of Aristotle from the 
academy, and in his erection of a school in opposition to Plato 
during his life. We find no proof that Aristotle instituted a 
new system of philosophy before the death of Plato. 

It is certain, however, that when Speusippus, upon the 
death of his uncle, succeeded him in the academy, Aristotle 
was so much displeased, that he left Athens, and paid a visit 
to Hermias, king of the Atarnenses, who had been his friend 
and fellow disciple, and who received him with every express- 



ARISTOTLE. 59 

ion of regard. Here he remained three years, and during 
this interval diligently prosecuted his philosophical researches. 
At the close of this term, his friend Hermias was taken pris- 
oner hy Mernnon, a Rhodian, and sent to Artaxerxes, king of 
Persia, who put him. to death. Upon this, Aristotle placed a 
statue of his friend in the temple at Delphos, and, out of re- 
spect to his memory, married his sister, whom her brother's 
death had reduced to poverty and distress. Upon the death 
of Hermias, Aristotle removed to Mitylene, but from what 
inducement does not appear. After he had remained there 
two years, Philip, king of Macedon, having heard of his ex- 
traordinary abilities and merit, made choice of him as pre- 
ceptor to his son Alexander, and wrote him the following 
letter : — 

" Philip to Aeistotle, wisheth health : 

" Be informed that I have a son, and that I am thankful 
to the gods, not so much for his birth, as that he was born in 
the same age with you ; for if you will undertake the charge 
of his education, I assure myself that he will become worthy 
of his father, and of the kingdom which he will inherit." 

Aristotle accepted the charge, ana! in the second year of 
the hundred and ninth Olympiad, when Alexander was in his 
fifteenth year, he took up his residence in the court of Philip. 
He had been himself well instructed, not only in the doctrines 
of the schools, but in the manners of the world, and there- 
fore was excellently qualified for the office of preceptor to the 
young prince. Accordingly, we find that he executed his 
trust so perfectly to the satisfaction of Philip and Olympia, 
that they admitted him to their entire confidence, and con- 
ferred upon him many acceptable tokens of esteem. Philip 
allowed him no small share of influence in his public councils, 
and it reflected great honor upon Aristotle, that he made use 
of his interest with his prince rather for the benefit of his 
friends and the public, than for his own emolument. At his 



60 



ARISTOTLE. 



intercession, the town of Stagira, which had fallen into decay, 
was rebuilt, and the inhabitants were restored to their ancient 
privileges. In commemoration of their obligations to their 
fellow-citizen, and as a testimony of respect for his merit, they 
instituted an annual Aristotelian festival. Alexander enter- 
tained such an affection for his preceptor, that he professed 
himself more indebted to him than to his father ; declaring 
that Philip had only given him life, but that Aristotle had 
taught him the art of living well. He is said, not only to 
have instructed his pupil in the principles of ethics and policy, 
but also to have communicated to him the most abstruse 
and concealed doctrines of philosophy. But it may be ques- 
tioned whether a preceptor, who was himself so well trained 
by experience in the prudential maxims of life, would think 
of conducting a youth, who was destined to wield a sceptre, 
through the intricate mazes of metaphysics, or whether a 
pupil of Alexander's enterprising spirit would be able to bend 
his mind to such studies. What is related concerning the 
pains which Aristotle took to make his pupil acquainted 
with Homer, and to inspire him with a love of his writings, 
is much more credible ; for he certainly could not have adopt- 
ed a more judicious method of enriching the mind of the 
young prince with noble sentiments, or of inspiring him with 
ambition to distinguish himself by illustrious actions. 

After Aristotle had left his pupil they carried on a friendly 
correspondence, in which the philosopher prevailed upon Alex- 
ander to employ his increasing power and wealth in the ser- 
vice of philosophy, by furnishing him, in his retirement, with 
the means of enlarging his acquaintance with nature. Alex- 
ander accordingly employed several thousand persons in 
different parts of Europe and Asia to collect animals of various 
kinds, birds, beasts, and fishes, and sent them to Aristotle, who 
from the information which this collection afforded him, wrote 
fifty volumes on the history of animated nature, only ten of 
which are now extant. Oallisthenes, in the course of the 



ARISTOTLE. 61 

Asiatic expedition, incurred the displeasure of Alexander by 
the freedom with which he censured his conduct ; the aversion 
was by a natural association transferred to Aristotle ; and 
from that time a mutual alienation and jealousy took place 
between the philosopher and his prince. But there is no suffi- 
cient reason to believe that their attachment was converted 
into a settled enmity, which at length led them to. form de- 
signs against each other's life. 

Aristotle, upon his return to Athens, finding the Academy, 
in which he probably intended to preside, occupied by Xeno- 
crates, resolved to acquire the fame of a leader in philosophy 
by founding a new sect in opposition to the Academy, and 
teaching a system of doctrines different from that of Plato. 
The place which he chose for his school was the Lyceum, a 
grove in the suburbs of Athens, which had hitherto been made 
use of for military exercises. Here he held daily conversations 
on subjects of philosophy with those who attended him, walking 
as he discoursed ; whence his followers were called Peripatetics. 

According to the long-established practice of philosophers 
among the Grecians, Egyptians, and other nations, Aristotle 
had his public and his secret doctrine, the former of which 
he called the Exoteric, and the latter the Acroamatic or Eso- 
teric Hence he divided his auditors into two classes, to one 
of which he taught his Exoteric doctrine, discoursing on the 
principal subjects of logic, rhetoric, and policy; the other he 
instructed in the Acroamatic, or concealed and subtle doctrine, 
concerning Being, Nature and God. His more abstruse dis- 
courses he delivered in the morning to his select disciples, 
whom he required to have been previously instructed in the 
elements of learning, and to have discovered abilities and dis- 
positions suited to the study of philosophy. He delivered 
lectures to a more promiscuous auditory in the evening, when 
the Lyceum was open to all young men without distinction. 
The former he called his Morning Walk, the latter his Evening 
Walk. Both were much frequented. 

6 



62 ARISTOTLE. 

Aristotle continued Ms school in the Lyceum twelve years ; 
for, although the superiority of his abilities, and the novelty 
of his doctrines created him many rivals and enemies, during 
the life of Alexander the friendship of that prince protected 
him from insult. But after Alexander's death, which hap- 
pened in the first year of the hundred and fourteenth Olym- 
piad, the fire of jealousy, which had long been smothered, 
burst into a flame of persecution. His adversaries instigated 
Eurymedon, a priest, to accuse him of holding and propagat- 
ing impious tenets. What these were, we are not expressly 
informed, but it is not improbable that the doctrine of Aris- 
totle concerning fate might be construed into a denial of the 
necessity of prayers and sacrifices, and might consequently be 
resented as inimical to the public institutions of religion. This 
would doubtless be thought, on the part of the priesthood, a 
sufficient ground of accusation, and would be admitted by the 
judges of the Areopagus "as a valid plea for treating him as a 
dangerous man. That Aristotle himself was apprehensive of 
meeting with the fate of Socrates, appears from the reason 
which he gave his friends for leaving Athens : " I am not will- 
ing," says he, " to give the Athenians an opportunity of com- 
mitting a second offence against philosophy." It is certain 
that he retired, with a few of his disciples, to Ohalcis, where 
he remained till his death. He left Athens in the second 
year of the hundred and fourteenth Olympiad, and died at 
Chalcis the third year of the same Olympiad, and the sixty- 
third year of his age. Many idle tales are related concerning 
the manner of his death. It was most likely that it was the 
effect of premature decay, in consequence of excessive watch- 
fulness, and application to study. His body was conveyed to 
Stagira, where his memory was honored with an altar and a 
tomb. 

Aristotle was twice married, first to Pythias, sister to his 
friend Hermias, and after her death to Herpyllis, a native of 
Stagira. Bv his second wife he had a son named Nichoma- 



ARISTOTLE. 63 

elms, to whom he addressed his Magna MoraMa, " Greater 
Morals." His person was slender ; he had small eyes, and a 
shrill voice, and when he was young hesitated in his speech. 
He endeavored to supply the defects of his natural form by an 
attention to dress, and commonly appeared in a costly habit, 
with his beard shaven, and his hair cut, and with rings upon 
his fingers. He was subject to frequent indispositions, through 
a natural weakness of stomach; but he corrected the infirmi- 
ties of his constitution by a temperate regimen. 

Concerning the character of Aristotle nothing can be more 
contradictory than the statements of different writers. The 
above account of the Stagirite is from " Enfield's Brucker." 
A number of additional facts are furnished by Diogenes Laer- 
ties, from whom we select the following. 

Aristotle was the son of Nicomachus and Phsestias, a citi- 
zen of Stagira ; he lived with Amyntas, the king of the Mace- 
donians, as both a physician and a friend. 

He was the most eminent of all the pupils of Plato. He 
had a lisping voice. He also had very thin legs, they say, and 
small eyes; but he used to indulge in very conspicuous dress, 
and rings, and used to dress his hair carefully. 

He had also a son named Nicomachus, by Herpyllis his con- 
cubine, as we are told by Timotheus. 

He seceded from Plato while he was still alive ; so that they 
tell a story that he said, " Aristotle has kicked us off just as 
chickens do their mother after they have been hatched." But 
Hermippus says in his Lives, that while he was absent on an em- 
bassy to Philip, on behalf of the Athenians, Xenocrates became 
the president of the school and the Academy ; and that when 
he returned and saw the school under the presidency of some 
one else, he selected a promenade in the Lyceum, in which 
he used to walk up and down with his disciples, discussing sub- 
jects of philosophy till the time for anointing themselves came ; 
on which account he was called a Peripatetic* But others 

* From peripateo, " to walk about." 



64 ARISTOTLE. 

say that he got this name because once when Alexander was 
walking about after recovering from a sickness, he accom- 
panied him and kept conversing with him. But when his 
pupils became numerous, he then gave them sea^s ; saying : — 

It would be shame for me to hold my peace, 
And for Isocrates to keep on talking. 

And he used to accustom his disciples to discuss any ques- 
tion which might be proposed, training them just as an orator 
might. 

After that he went to Hermias the Eunuch, the tyrant of 
Atarneus, who, as it is said, allowed him all kinds of liberties ; 
and some say that he formed a matrimonial connection with 
him, giving him either his daughter or his niece in marriage, 
as is recorded in Demetrius by Magnesia. And the same 
authority says that Hermias had been the slave of Eubulus, 
and a Bithynian by descent, and that he slew his master. But 
Aristippus, in the first book of his treatise on Ancient Luxury, 
says that Aristotle was enamored of the concubine of Her- 
mias, and that, as Hermias gave his consent, he married her ; 
and was so overjoyed that he sacrificed to her, as the Athe- 
nians do the Eleusinian Ceres. And he wrote a hymn to 
Hermias, which is given at length below. 

After that he lived in Macedonia, at the court of Philip, 
and was entrusted by him with his son Alexander as a pupil ; 
and he entreated him to restore his native city which had 
been destroyed by Philip, and had. his request granted; and 
he also made laws for the citizens. And also he used to make 
laws in his schools, doing this in imitation of Xenocrates, so 
that he appointed a president every ten days. And when he 
thought that he had spent time enough with Alexander, he 
departed for Athens, having recommended to him his relation 
Callisthenes, a native of Olynthus ; but as he spoke too freely to 
the king, and would not take Aristotle's advice, he reproached 
him and said : — 



ARISTOTLE. 65 

Alas ! ray child, in life's primeval bloom, 
Such hasty word3 will bring thee to thy doom. 

And his prophecy was fulfilled, for as he was believed by Her- 
molaus to have been privy to the plot against Alexander, he 
was shut up in an iron cage, covered with lice, and untended ; 
and at last he was given to a lion, and so died. 

Aristotle then having come to Athens, and having presided 
over his school there for thirteen years, retired secretly to 
Chalcis, as Eurymedon, the hierophant, had impeached him on 
an indictment for impiety, though Pharorinus, in his Universal 
History, says that his persecutor was Demophelus, on the 
ground of having written the hymn to the before-mentioned 
Hermias, and also the following epigram which was engraven 
on his statue at Delphi : — 

The tyrant of the Persian archer race, 

Broke through the laws of God to slay this man ; 

Not by the manly spear in open fight, 

But by the treachery of a faithless friend. 

And after that he died of taking a draught of aconite, as 
Eumelus says in the fifth book of his Histories, at the age of 
seventy years. And the same author says that he was thirty 
years old when he first became acquainted with Plato. But 
this is a mistake of his, for he did only live in reality sixty- 
three years, and he was seventeen years old when he first 
attached himself to Plato. And the hymn in honor of Her- 
mias is as follows : — 

O Virtue, won by earnest strife, 

And holding out the noblest prize 
That ever gilded earthly life, 

Or drew it on to seek the skies ! 
For thee what son of Greece would not 
Deem it an enviable lot, 
To live the life, to die th* death, 

That fears no weary hour, shrinks from no fiery breath ? 
Such fruit hast thou of heavenly bloom, 

A lure more rich than golden heap, 
More tempting than the joys of home, 

More bland than spell of soft-eyed sleep. 

6- 



66 ARISTOTLE. 

For thee Alcides, son of Jove, 

And the twin boys of Leda strove, 

With patient toil and sinewy might, 

Thy glorious prize to grasp, to reach thy lofty height. 

Achilles, Ajax, for thy love 

Descended to the realms of night ; 
Atarneus' king thy vision drove, 

To quit for aye the glad sun-light ; 
Therefore, to Memory's daughter dear, 
His deathless name, his pure career, 
Live shrined in song, and linked with awe, 
The awe of Xenian Jove, and faithful friendship's law. 

There is also an epigram of ours upon him, which runs 
thus : — 

Eurymedon, the faithful minister 
Of the mysterious Eleusinian Queen, 
Was once about t' impeach the Stagirite 
Of impious guilt. But he escaped his hands 
By mighty draught of friendly aconite, 
And thus defeated all his wicked arts. 

Pharorinus, in his Universal History, says that Aristotle was 
the first person who ever composed a speech to be delivered 
in his own defence in a court of justice, and that he did so 
on the occasion of this prosecution, and said that at Athens, — 

Pears upon pear-trees grow ; on fig-trees, figs. 

Apollodorus, in his Chronicles, says that he was born in 
the first year of the ninety-ninth Olympiad, and that he at- 
tached himself to Plato, and remained with him for twenty 
years, having been seventeen years of age when he originally 
joined him. 

It is said also that he was offended with the king, because 
of the result of the conspiracy of Oalisthenes against Alexan- 
der ; and that the king, for the sake of annoying him, pro- 
moted Anaximenes to honor, and sent presents to Xenocrates. 
And Theocritus, of Chios, wrote an epigram upon him, to 
ridicule him, in the following terms, as it is quoted by Am- 
brvon in his account of Theocritus : — 



ARISTOTLE. 67 

The empty-headed Aristotle raised 
This empty tomb to Hermias the Eunuch, 
The ancient slave of the ill-used Eubulus, 
[Who, for his monstrous appetite, preferred 
The Bosphorus to Academia's groves.] 

And Timon attacked him too, saying of him : — 

Nor the sad chattering of the empty Aristotle. 

We have also met with his will, which we give as inter- 
esting to those who may desire to know the manner in which 
this distinguished philosopher disposed of his property. It 
contains some peculiar features : " May things turn out well ; 
but if anything happens to him, in that case Aristotle has 
made the following disposition of his affairs : That Antipa- 
ter shall be the general and universal executor. And until 
Nicanor marries my daughter, I appoint Aristomedes, Timar- 
chus, Hipparchus, Dioteles, and Theophrastus, if he will con- 
sent and accept the charge, to be the guardians of my chil- 
dren and of Her py His, and the trustees of all the property I 
leave behind me ; and I desire them, when my daughter is old 
enough, to give her in marriage to ISFicanor ; but if any 
thing should happen to the girl, which may God forbid, 
either before or after she is married, but before she has any 
children, then I will that Kicanor shall have the absolute 
disposal of my son, and of all other things, in the full confi- 
dence that he will arrange them in a manner worthy of me 
and of himself. Let him also be the guardian of my daugh- 
ter and son Nicomachus, to act as he pleases with respect to 
them, as if he were their father or brother. But if anything 
should happen to Nicanor, which may God forbid, either be- 
fore he receives my daughter in marriage, or after he is mar- 
ried to her, or before he has any children by her, then any 
arrangements which he may make by will shall stand. But if 
Theophrastus, in this case, should choose to take my daughter 
in marriage, then he is to stand exactly in the same position as 
Kicanor. And if not, then I will, that my trustees, consult- 



DO ARISTOTLE. 

ing with Antipater concerning both the boy and girl, shall 
arrange everything respecting them as they shall think fit ; 
and that my trustees and Nicanor, remembering both me and 
Herpyllis, and how well she has behaved to me, shall take 
care, if she be inclined to take a husband, that one be found 
for her that shall not be unworthy of us ; and shall give her, 
in addition to all that has been already given her, a talent of 
silver, and three maid-servants, if she please to accept them, 
and the hand-maid whom she has now, and the boy Pyr- 
rhseus. And if she likes to dwell at Chalcis, she shall have 
the house which joins the garden ; but if she likes to dwell 
in Stagira, then she shall have my father's house. And 
whichever of these houses she elects to take, I will that my 
executors do furnish it with all necessary furniture, in such 
manner as shall seem to them and to Herpyllis to be sufficient. 
And let Mcanor be the guardian of the child Myrmex, so that 
he shall be conducted to his friends in a manner worthy of 
us, with all his property which I received. I also will that 
Aubracis shall have her liberty, and that there shall be given 
to her when her daughter is married, five hundred drachmas, 
and the hand-maid whom she now has. And I will that 
there be given to Thales, besides the hand-maiden whom she 
now has, who was bought for her, a thousand drachmas, and 
another hand-maid. And to Timon, in addition to the money 
that has been given to him before for another boy, an addi- 
tional slave, or a sum of money which shall be equivalent. 
I also will that Tychon shall have his liberty when his daugh- 
ter is married, and Philon, and Olympius, and his son. More- 
over, of those boys who wait upon me, I will that none shall 
be sold, but my executors may use them, and when they are 
grown up, then they shall emancipate them if they deserve 
it. I desire too, that my executors will take under their care 
the statues, which it has been entrusted to Gryllion to make, 
that when they are made they may be erected in their proper 
places ; and so too shall the statues of Nicanor, and of Prox- 



ARISTOTLE. 69 

enus, which I was intending to give him a commission for, 
and also that of the mother of Nicanor. I wish them also 
to erect in its proper place the statue of Arimnestus, which 
is already made, that it may be a memorial of her, since she 
has died childless. I wish them also to dedicate a statue of 
my mother to Ceres at Nemea, or wherever else they think 
fit. And wherever they bury me, there I desire that they 
shall also place the bones of Pythias, having taken them up 
from the place where they now lie, as she herself enjoined. 
And I desire that Mcanor, as he has been preserved, will 
perform the vow which I made on his behalf, and dedicate 
some figures of animals in stone, four cubits high, to Jupiter 
the saviour, and Minerva the saviour, in Stagira." 

And it is said that a great many dishes were found in 
his house ; and that Lycon stated that he used to bathe in a 
bath of warm oil, and afterwards to sell the oil. But some 
say that he used to place a leather bag of warm oil on his 
stomach. And whenever he went to bed, he used to take a 
brazen ball in his hand, having arranged a brazen dish below 
it, so that, when the ball fell into the dish, he might be awak- 
ened by the noise. 

The following admirable apophthegms are attributed to him. 

He was once asked, what those who tell lies gain by it: 
"They gain this," said he, " that when they speak the truth 
they are not believed." 

On one occasion he was blamed for giving alms to a worth- 
less man, and he replied, " I did not pity the man, but his 
condition." 

He was accustomed continually to say to his friends and 
pupils wherever he happened to be, " That sight receives the 
light from the air which surrounds it, and in like manner the 
soul receives the light from the science." 

Very often, when he was inveighing against the Athenians, 
he would say that they had invented both wheat and laws, 
but that they used only the wheat and neglected the laws. 



70 ARISTOTLE. 

It was a saying of his that the roots of education were bit- 
ter, but the fruit sweet. 

Once be was asked what grew old most speedily, and he 
replied, " Gratitude." 

On another occasion the question was put to him, what 
hope is ? and his answer was, " The dream of a waking 
man." 

Diogenes once offered him a dry fig, and as he conjectured 
that if he did not take it the cynic had a witticism ready 
prepared, he accepted it, and then said that Diogenes had 
lost his joke and his fig too ; and another time when he took 
one from him as he offered it, he held it up as a child does, 
and said, "0 great Diogenes;" and then he gave it to him 
back again. 

He used to say that there were three things necessary to 
education ; natural qualifications, instruction, and practice. 

Having heard that he was abused by some one, he said, 
" He may beat me too, if he likes, in my absence." 

He used to say that beauty is the best of all recommenda- 
tions, but others say that it was Diogenes who gave this de- 
scription of it ; and that Aristotle called beauty, " The gift of 
a fair appearance ;" that Socrates called it " A short-lived 
tyranny;" Plato, " The privilege of nature;" Theophrastus 
"A silent deceit;" Theocritus, "An ivory mischief;" Carnea- 
des, "A sovereignty which stood in need of no guards." 

On one occasion Ire was asked how much educated men 
were superior to those uneducated ; " As much," said he, " as 
the living are to the dead." 

It was a saying of his that education was an ornament in 
prosperity, and a refuge in adversity. And that those parents 
who gave their children a good education deserve more 
honor than those who merely beget them ; for that the latter 
only enabled the children to live, but the former gave them 
the power of living well. 

"When a man boasted in his presence that he was a native 



ARISTOTLE. 71 

of an illustrious city, he said, " That is not what one ought to 
look at, hut whether one is worthy of a great city." 

He was once asked what a friend is ; and his answer was, 
"T)ne soul abiding in two bodies." 

It was a saying of his that some men were as stingy as if they 
expected to live forever, and some as extravagant as if they 
expected to die immediately. 

When he was asked why people like to spend a great deal 
of their time with handsome people, "That," said he, "is a 
question fit for a blind man to ask." 

The question was once put to him, what he had gained by 
philosophy ; and the answer he made was this, " That I do 
without being commanded, what others do from fear of the 
laws." 

He was once asked what his disciples ought to do to get on, 
and he replied, "Press on upon those who are in front of 
them, and not wait for those who are behind to catch them." 

A chattering fellow, who had been abusing him, said to him, 
"Have not I been jeering you properly?" "Not that I 
know of," said he, "for I have not been listening to you." 

A man on one occasion reproached him for having given a 
contribution to one who was not a good man (for the story 
which I have mentioned before is also quoted in this way), 
and his answer was, " I gave not to the man, but to humanity." 

The question was once put to him, how we ought to behave 
'to our friends ; and the answer he gave was, " As we should 
wish our friends to behave to us." 

He used to define justice as " A virtue of the soul distribu- 
tive of what each .person deserved." 

Another of his sayings was, that education was the best 
viaticum for old age. 

Pharorinus, in the second book of his Commentaries, says 
that he was constantly repeating, " The man who has friends 
has no friend." And this sentiment is to be found also in the 
seventh book of the Ethics. 



72 AURELIUS ANTONINUS 



AUKELIUS ANTONINUS. 

The great and good emperor, Makous Aueelius AntoninuS, 
was a man not less distinguished by his learning, wisdom, and 
virtue, than by his imperial dignity. We shall here consider 
him only in the light of a philosopher, and a patron of philos- 
ophers. 

Aurelius, who was born in the year one hundred and 
twenty-one, after having been early instructed in languages, 
eloquence, and liberal arts, followed the natural bias of his ge- 
nius, in devoting himself to the study of philosophy under 
Sextus Junius, and other professors of the Stoic school. At 
the same time he omitted no opportunity of acquainting him- 
self with the tenets of other sects. At twelve years of age he 
forsook the common pursuits and amusements of childhood, and 
assumed the habit of a Stoic philosopher. In order to inure 
himself to the hardiness of the Stoic character, he used to 
sleep upon the ground, with no other covering than his cloak ; 
and it was with great difficulty that his mother prevailed 
upon him to make use of a leathern couch. So great was the 
respect which he always retained for his preceptors, that he 
honored their memory with statues, and kept their busts, or 
portraits, in his domestic temple. 

The accomplishments and virtues of this excellent youth rec- 
ommended him to the favor of the emperor Adrian, who con- 
ducted him rapidly through the several stages of advance- 
ment, and who appointed Antoninus Pius his successor upon 
the express condition that Aurelius should' be next in success^ 
ion. Aurelius, far from being elated with these honors, upon 
his removal from his father's house to the emperor's discovered 
great reluctance, and expressed strong apprehensions of the 
difficulties and hazards of government. After his advance- 
ment, he continued to treat his parents with the same respect, 
and to pay the same regard to their advice and authority, as 



AURELIUS ANTONINUS. 73 

he had before always done. Nor did he suffer the engage- 
ments or avocations of his high station to divert him from the 
prosecution of his studies. Under the direction of Apollonius 
the Ohalcidian, a Stoic philosopher, he studied philosophy as 
the foundation of policy, in order to qualify himself for the 
offices of government. 

During the life of Antoninus Pius, that emperor was greatly 
assisted in the affairs of government by Aurelius, who gave 
him every possible proof of probity, fidelity, and affection. 
After the death of the emperor, which happened in the year 
one hundred and sixty-one, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was, 
with the unanimous concurrence of the senate and the people, 
advanced to the purple ; and through the whole course of his 
reign he exercised his power under the direction of philosophy, 
and by his justice and clemency obtained the general love of 
his subjects. 

It is much to be lamented that the mild and gentle spirit 
which this emperor unquestionably possessed should, with re- 
spect to the Christians, have so far yielded to the importunity 
of inferior governors, and the tumultuous complaints of the 
people, that in several provinces, particularly in Gaul, he per- 
mitted them to be harassed by persecution. Perhaps, too, 
that false notion of the character and conduct of the Chris- 
tians, which led him, with many others, to mistake their 
meritorious perseverance for culpable obstinacy, might have 
some share in producing those severities which were con- 
tinued through his whole reign. 

An invasion from the north having been, not without great 
difficulty, repelled, the emperor devoted his attention to the 
institution of useful laws, and the correction of civil and moral 
disorders. He never failed to give encouragement to such as 
distinguished themselves by their talents or merit, and to rec- 
ommend the strictest morality by his own example. Whilst 
he was indefatigable in his attention to public affairs, he filled 
up every hour of leisure Avith philosophical studies. He suf- 
1 



74 AURELIUS ANTONINUS. 

fered no material incident to pass without writing such reflec- 
tions upon it as might serve to establish in the mind the habit 
of virtuous fortitude. This practice produced those Meditations, 
which are deservedly reckoned among the most valuable re- 
mains of Stoic philosophy. Modesty, and humanity, the fairest 
fruits of wisdom, were virtues peculiarly conspicuous in the 
character of this amiable prince. He despised flattery, refused 
magnificent titles, and would suffer no temples or altars to be 
erected in honor of his name. When the rebellion in Syria 
was suppressed, and the head of Aulus Cassius, the leader of 
the revolt, was brought to Eome, the emperor received it 
with manifest tokens of regret, and ordered it to be buried. 

During an interval of peace, Aurelius took a journey to 
Athens. His route was marked with actions worthy of his 
character; and when he arrived at the ancient seat of the 
Muses, he gave many welcome proofs of his love of learning 
and philosophy, by appointing public professors, liberally en- 
dowing the schools, conferring honors upon persons of distin- 
guished merit, and performing other acts of imperial munifi- 
cence. 

Eeturning to Eome, the emperor retired to Lavinium, with 
the design of devoting himself to his favorite studies. But 
after a short interval, an irruption of Scythians, and other 
Northern people, obliged him to lead his forces against them. 
From this expedition he returned victorious; but, in his way 
home, he was seized at Vienna with a mortal disease. Aure- 
lius met his end with great firmness ; expressing, in the true 
spirit of Stoicism, indifference to life, and contempt of death. 
He died in the sixtieth year of his age. 

Through his whole life, this illustrious philosopher exhibited 
a shining example of Stoic equanimity. His countenance re- 
mained unaltered by any emotions of joy or sorrow; he never 
suffered himself to be elated by victory, or depressed by de- 
feat. The severity which the philosophical system he es- 
poused was adapted to cherish, was, nevertheless, happily 



AVERROES, 75 

chastised by an innate benevolence of heart ; and it is deser- 
vedly represented as his highest praise, that he was able, 
by the united influence of his precepts and example, to make 
bad citizens good, and the good still better. 



AVERROES. 






Of all the Arabian philosophers and physicians, the most 
celebrated was Averroes, a philosopher whom Christians as 
well as Arabians esteemed equal, if not superior, to Aristotle 
himself. Averroes was born about the middle of the twelfth 
century, of a noble family at Corduba, the capital of the Sar- 
acen dominions in Spain. He was early instructed in the 
Islamitic law, and, after the usual manner of the Arabian 
schools, united with the study of Mahometan theology that of 
the Aristotelian philosophy. These studies he pursued under 
Thophail, and became a follower of the sect of the Asharites. 
Under Avenzoar he studied the science of medicine, and under 
Ibnu-Saig l\e made himself master of the mathematical sci- 
ences. Thus qualified, he was chosen, upon his father's 
demise, to the chief magistracy of Corduba. The fame of his 
extraordinary erudition and talents soon afterwards reached 
the Caliph Jacob Al-Mansor, king of Mauritania, the third of 
the Almohadean dynasty, who had built a magnificent school 
at Morocco ; and that prince appointed him supreme magis- 
trate and priest of Morocco and all Mauritania, allowing him 
still to retain his former honors. Having left a temporary 
substitute at Corduba, he went to Morocco, and remained 
there till he had appointed, through the kingdom, judges well 
skilled in the Mahometan law, and settled the whole plan of 
administration ; after which he returned home, and resumed 
his offices. 

This rapid advancement of Averroes brought upon him the 



76 AVERROES. 

envy of his rivals at Corduba, and they conspired to lodge an 
accusation against him, for an heretical desertion of the true 
Mahometan faith. For this purpose, they engaged several 
young persons among their dependents, to apply to him for 
instruction in philosophy. Averroes, who was easy of access, 
and always desirous of communicating knowledge, complied 
with their request, and thus fell into the snare which had 
been laid for him. His new pupils were very industrious in 
taking minutes of every tenet or opinion advanced by their 
preceptor, which appeared to contradict the established sys- 
tem of Mahometan theology. These minutes they framed 
into a charge of heresy, and attested upon oath that they had 
been fairly taken from his lips. The charge was signed by a 
hundred witnesses. The Caliph listened to the accusation, 
and punished Averroes, by declaring him heterodox, confis- 
cating his goods, and commanding him for the future to reside 
among the Jews, who inhabited the precincts of Corduba, 
where he remained an object of general persecution and ob- 
loquy. Even the boys in the streets pelted him with stones 
when he went up to the mosque in the city to perform his 
devotions. His pupil, Maimonides, that he might not be un- 
der the necessity of violating the laws of friendship and grati- 
tude, by joining the general cry against Averroes, left Cor- 
duba. From this unpleasant situation Averroes at last found 
means to escape. He fled to Fez ; but he had been there 
only a few days, when he was discovered by the magistrate, 
and committed to prison. The report of his flight from Cor- 
duba was soon carried to the king, who immediately called a 
council of divines and lawyers, to determine in what manner 
this heretic should be treated. The members of the council 
were not agreed in opinion. Some strenuously maintained, 
that a man who held opinions so contrary to the law of the 
prophet deserved death. Others thought that much mischief, 
arising from the dissatisfaction of those among the infidels 
who were inclined to favor him, might be avoided, by only 



AVERROES. 77 

requiring from the culprit a public penance and recantation 
of his errors. The milder opinion prevailed, and Averroes 
was "brought out of prison to the gate of the mosque, and 
placed upon the upper step, with his head bare, at the time 
of public prayers, and every one, as he passed into the mosque, 
was allowed to spit upon his face. At the close of the ser- 
vice, the judge, with his attendants, came to the philosopher, 
and asked him whether he repented of his heresies. He ac- 
knowledged his penitence, and was dismissed without further 
punishment. With the permission of the king, Averroes re- 
turned to Oorduba, where he experienced all the miseries of 
poverty and contempt. In process of time, the people became 
dissatisfied with the regent who had succeeded Averroes, and 
petitioned the king that their former governor might be re- 
stored. Jacob AJ-Mansor, not daring to show such indulgence 
to one who had been infamous for heresy, without the con- 
sent of the priesthood, called a general assembly, in which it 
was debated, whether it would be consistent with the safety 
of religion, and the honor of the law, that Averroes should 
be restored to the government of Oorduba. The delibera- 
tion terminated in favor of the penitent heretic, and he was 
restored, by the royal mandate, to all his former honors. 
Upon this fortunate change in his affairs, Averroes removed 
to Morocco, where he remained till his death, which happen- 
ed, as some say, in the year 1195, or, according to others, in 
1206. 

Averroes is highly celebrated for his personal virtues. He 
practiced the most rigid temperance, eating only, once in a 
day, the plainest food. So indefatigable was his industry in 
the pursuit of science, that he often passed whole nights in 
study. In his judicial capacity, he discharged his duty with 
great wisdom and integrity. His humanity would not per- 
mit him to pass the sentence of death upon any criminal. He 
left this painful ofiice to his deputies. He possessed so great 
a degree of self-command and patient lenity, that when one 
7* 



78 AVICENNA. 

of his enemies, in the midst of a public discourse, sent a ser- 
vant to him to whisper some abusive language in his ear, he 
took no other notice of what passed than if it had been a 
secret message of business. The next day the servant re- 
turned, and publicly begged pardon of Averroes for the 
affront he had offered him; upon which Averroes only 
appeared displeased that his patient endurance of injuries 
should be brought into public notice, and dismissed the 
servant with a gentle caution, never to offer that insult to 
another, which had in the present instance passed unpunish- 
ed. Averroes spent a great part of his wealth in liberal do- 
nations to learned men, without making any distinction be- 
tween his friends and his enemies ; for which his apology 
was, that in giving to his frienfls and relations, he only fol- 
lowed the dictates of Nature ; but in giving to his enemies 
he obeyed the commands of Virtue. With uncommon abili- 
ties and learning, Averroes united great affability and urbanity 
of manners. He may be justly regarded as one of the 
greatest men of his age. 



AVICENNA. 



Avicenna, or Ibn-Sina, was born at Bochara in the year 
978. His first preceptor was Abu-Abdalla, a philosopher, 
whom his father engaged to instruct him in his own house ; 
concerning whom Avicenna says, that he taught him the 
terms of logic, but was unacquainted with the nature of the 
art. Before he arrived at his eighteenth year, Avicenna, 
more, as it seems, through his own industry than by the as- 
sistance of preceptors, became well read in languages, in the 
Islamitic law, and in the sciences. In order, however, to 
render himself a more perfect master of the sublime doctrines 
of philosophy, and the subtle questions of dialectics, he be- 



AVICENNA. 79 

came a student in the school of Bagdat. Here he prosecuted 
his studies with indefatigable industry, but at the same time 
with a fanatical spirit scarcely consistent with manly sense 
and sound judgment. When he was perplexed with any log- 
ical question, or could not discover a proper middle term for a 
syllogism, he used to repair to the mosque, and poured out 
prayers for divine illumination ; after which he fancied that 
the arguments and proofs he had sought were communicated 
to him in his sleep. 

As was usual among the philosophers of Bagdat, Avicenna 
united with the study of philosophy the practice of medicine ; 
and he soon acquired such a degree of reputation, that the 
caliph consulted him with respect to his son, in a case which 
perplexed the physicians of the court. His prescription suc- 
ceeded, and the success obtained him admission to the court, 
and access to the library of the prince. From this time he 
continued to prosecute his studies with diligence, and to prac- 
tise medicine with great applause. During this tide of pros- 
perity, Avicenna had no small degree of influence in public 
affairs, and rapidly increased his possessions. An unfortunate 
circumstance, however, suddenly turned the current of his 
fortune, and removed him from the court to a prison. The 
sultan Jasochbagh proposing to send his nephew as his repre- 
sentative into the native country of Avicenna, the young 
prince obtained the sultan's permission to take Avicenna with 
him, as his companion and physician. The sultan was, not 
long afterwards, informed that the young prince, with his 
brother, was meditating a rebellion. Upon this, he immedi- 
ately sent secret orders to Avicenna, to take off the leader of 
the conspiracy by poison. The philosopher had too much 
fidelity to his master to fulfil the commission, but at the same 
time, through caution or fear, chose to conceal the order from 
the young prince. But when Avicenna's master became, by 
some unknown means, acquainted with the sultan's design 
against his life, he was so highly offended with Avicenna for 



80 B E L U S . 

his dishonest reserve, in not communicating to him so import- 
ant a circumstance, that he ordered him to be imprisoned. 
Avicenna endeavored to justify himself, by pleading that he 
had concealed the sultan's order, from the hope of preventing 
those mischiefs which he foresaw must have arisen from the 
discovery. The prince, however, suffered him to remain in 
prison from this time to his death, which he is said to have 
hastened by incontinence. He died in the fifty-eighth year 
of his age. 



BELUS. 

Theee are those who ascribe the invention of Astronomy 
to Belus. Pliny says, there is yet standing the temple of Ju- 
piter Belus ; he was the inventor of the science of the stars. 
Allan gives the following relation : Xerxes, son of Darius, 
waking up the monument of ancient Belus, found an urn of 
glass, in which his dead body lay in oil ; but the urn was not 
full; it wanted a hand-breadth of the top. Next the urn 
there was a little pillow, on which it was written that whoso- 
ever should open the sepulchre, and did not fill up the urn, 
should have ill fortune ; which Xerxes reading, grew afraid, 
and commanded that they should pour oil into it with all 
speed; notwithstanding it was not filled. Then he command- 
ed to pour into it a second time ; but neither did it increase 
at all thereby. So that at last, failing of success, he gave 
over, and, shutting up the monument, departed very sad. 
Nor did the event foretold by the pillow deceive him ; for he 
led an army of fifty myriads against Greece, where he re- 
ceived a great defeat, and returning home, died miserably, 
being murdered by his own son, in the night-time, abed. To 
this Belus, Semiramis, his daughter, erected a temple in the 
middle of Babylon, which was exceedingly high ; and by the 



BIAS. 81 

help thereof the Chaldeans, who addicted themselves to con- 
templation of the stars, did exactly observe their rising and 
setting. 



BIAS. 

Bias, who stands at the head of the seven wise men, was a 
citizen of Priene. Some say that he was the most wealthy 
man in the city, but others that he was only a settler. He 
ransomed some Messenian maidens, Who had been taken pris- 
oners, educated them as his own daughters, gave them dow- 
ries, and then sent them back to their father in Messina. 
When the tripod was found which bore the inscription, "For 
the wise," Satyrus says that the damsels (but others say it was 
their father) came into the assembly, and said that Bias was 
the wise man, recounting what he had done to them ; and so 
the tripod was sent to him. But Bias, when he saw it, said 
that it was Apollo who was " the Wise," and consequently 
could not receive the tripod. 

But others say that he consecrated it at Thebes to Hercules, 
because he himself was a descendant of the Thebans, who had 
sent a colony to Priene, as Phanodicus relates. It is said also 
than when Alyattes was besieging Priene, Bias fattened up 
two mules, and drove them into his camp ; and that the king, 
seeing the condition that the mules were in, was astonished at 
their being able to spare food to keep the brute beasts so well, 
and so he desired to make peace with them, and sent an am- 
bassador to them. On this Bias, having made some heaps of 
sand, and put corn on the top, showed them to the convoy ; 
and Alyattes, hearing from him what he had seen, made peace 
with the people of Priene ; and then, when he sent to Bias, de- 
siring him to come quickly to him, " Tell Alyattes, from me," 
he replied, "to eat onions ;" — which is the same as if he had 
said, " go and weep." 



82 BIAS. 

It is said that lie was very energetic and eloquent when 
pleading causes ; but that he always reserved his talents for 
the right side. In reference to which Demodicus of Alerius 
uttered the following enigmatical saying—" If you are a judge, 
give a Prienian decision." And Hipponax says, " More excel- 
lent in his decisions than Bias of Priene." Now he died in 
this manner : — 

Having pleaded a cause for some one when he was exceed- 
ingly old, after he had finished speaking, he leaned back with 
his head on the bosom of his daughter's son ; and after the 
advocate on the opposite side had spoken, and the judges had 
given their decision in favor of Bias's client, when the court 
broke up he was found dead on his grandson's bosom. And 
the city buried him in the greatest magnificence, and put over 
him this inscription — 

Beneath this stone lies Bias, who was bom 
In the illustrious Prienian land, 
The glory of the whole Ionian race. 

And we ourselves have also written an epigram on him — 

Here Bias lies, whom, when the hoary snow 
Had crowned his aged temples, Mercury 
Unpityingly led to Pluto's darken'd realms. 
He pleaded his friend's cause, and then reclin'd 
In his child's arms, repos'd in lasting sleep. 

He also wrote about two thousand verses on Ionia, to show 
in what matter a man might best arrive at happiness ; and of 
all his poetical sayings these have the greatest reputation: — 

Seek to please all the citizens, even though 
Your house may be in an ungracious city. 
For such a course will favor win from all : 
But haughty manners oft produce destruction 

And this one too : — 

Great strength of body is ihe gift of nature ; 
But to be able to advise whate'er 
Is most expedient for one's country's good, 
Is the peculiar work of sense and wisdom. 



BIAS. 83 

Another is :- 

Great riches coine to many men by chance. 

He used also to say that that man was unfortunate who 
could not support misfortune ; and that it is a disease of the 
mind to desire what was impossible, and to have no regard 
for the misfortunes of others. Being asked what was difficult, 
he said — " To bear a change of fortune for the worse with 
magnamity." Once he was on a voyage with some impious 
men, and the vessel was overtaken by a storm ; so they began 
to invoke the assistance of the Gods ; on which he said, " Hold 
your tongues, lest they should find out that you are in this 
ship." When he was asked by an impious man what piety was, 
he made no reply; and when his questioner demanded the 
reason of his silence, he said, " I am silent because you are 
putting questions about things with which you have no con- 
cern." Being asked what was pleasant to men, he replied, 
" Hope." It was a saying of his that it was more agreeable 
to decide between enemies than between friends ; for that of 
friends, one was sure to become an enemy to him ; but that 
of enemies, one was sure to become a friend. "When the ques- 
tion was put to him, what a man derived pleasure in while he 
was doing, he said, " While acquiring gain." He used to say, 
too, that men ought to calculate life both as if they were 
fated to live a long and short time ; and that they ought to 
love one another as if at a future time they would come to 
hate one another ; for that most men were wicked. He used 
also to give the following pieces of advice: — Choose the 
course which you adopt with deliberation; but when you 
have adopted it, then persevere in it with firmness. Do not 
speak fast, for that shows folly. Love prudence. Speak of 
the Gods as they are. Do not praise an undeserving man be- 
cause of his riches. Accept of things having procured them 
by persuasion, and not by force. Whatever good fortune be- 
falls you, attribute it to the Gods. Cherish wisdom as a means 



84 BION. 

of travelling from youtn to old age, for it is more lasting than 
any other possession. The greatest infelicity is not to be able 
to endure misfortunes patiently. Great minds alone can bear 
a sudden reverse of fortune. The most pleasant state is to be 
always gaining. Be not unmindful of the miseries of others. 
If you are handsome, do handsome things. If you are de- 
formed, supply the defects of nature by your virtues. Many 
men are dishonest, therefore love your friend with caution, for 
he may hereafter become your enemy. 

During an invasion, whilst every one about him was collect- 
ing his most valuable effects, and preparing for flight, one of 
his friends observing with surprise that he took no pains to 
preserve anything, asked him the reason ; Bias replied, " I 
carry all my treasures with me." 



BION. 

Bion was a native of the country around Borysthenes; 
but as to who his parents were, and to what circumstances it 
was owing that he applied himself to the study of philosophy, 
we know no more than what he himself told Antigonus. For 
when Antigonus asked him ; — 

What art thou, say ! from whence, from whom you came ; 
Who are your parents ? tell thy race, thy name ; 

he, knowing that he had been misrepresented to tne king, said 
to him, " My father was a freedman, who used to wipe his 
mouth with his sleeve," (by which he meant that he used to 
sell salt fish.) " As to his race, he was a native of the dis- 
trict of the Borysthenes ; having no countenance, but only a 
brand in his face, a token of the bitter cruelty of his master. 
My mother was such a woman as a man of that condition 
might marry, taken out of a brothel. Then, my father being 
in arrears to the tax-gatherers, was sold with all his family, 



B I O N . 85 

and with me among them ; and as I was young and good 
looking, a certain orator purchased me, and when he died he 
left me everything. And I, having burnt all his books, and 
torn up all his papers, came to Athens, and applied myself to 
the study of philosophy : — 

Such was my father, and from him I came, 
The honored author of my birth and name. 

This is all that I can tell you of myself; so that Persaeus and 
Philonides may give up telling these stories about me, and 
you may judge of me on my own merits." 

Bion was truly a man of great versatility, and a very subtle 
philosopher, and a man who gave all who chose great oppor- 
tunities of practising philosophy. In some respects he was of 
a gentle disposition, and very much inclined to indulge in 
vanity. 

He left behind him many memorials of himself in the way 
of writings, and also many apoththegms full of useful senti- 
ments. As, for instance, once when he was reproved for 
having failed to charm a young man, he replied, "You cannot 
possibly draw up cheese with a hook before it has got hard." 
On another occasion, he was asked who was the most miser- 
able of men, and replied, " He who has set his heart on the 
greatest prosperity." When he was asked whether it was 
advisable to marry, (for this answer also is attributed to him,) 
he replied, " If you marry an ugly woman you will have a 
punishment {poine), and if a handsome woman you will have 
one that is common" (koine). He called old age "a port to 
shelter one from misfortune;" and accordingly, he said that 
every one fled to it. He said that " glory was the mother of 
years;" that "beauty was a good which concerned others 
rather than one's self;" that "riches were the sinews of busi- 
ness." To a man who had squandered his estate he said, 
"The earth swallowed up Amphiaraus, but you have swal- 
lowed up the earth." Another saying of his was, that it was 

8 



86 B I N . 

a great evil not to be able to bear evil. And he condemned 
those who burnt the dead as though they felt nothing, and 
then mocked them as though they did feel. And he was 
always saying that it was better to put one's own beauty at 
the disposal of another, than to covet the beauty of others ; 
for that one who did so was injuring both his body and his 
soul. And he used to blame Socrates, saying, that if he de- 
rived no advantage from Alcibiades he was foolish, and if be 
never derived any advantage from him, he then deserved no 
credit. He used to say that the way to the shades below was 
easy, and accordingly, that people went there with their eyes 
shut. He used to blame Alcibiades, saying, that while he 
was a boy he seduced husbands from their wives, and when 
he had become a young man he seduced the wives from their 
husbands. While most of the Athenians at Ehodes practised 
rhetoric, he himself used to give lectures on philosophical 
subjects ; and to one who blamed him for this he said, " I 
have bought wheat, and I sell barley." 

It was a saying of his that the inhabitants of the shades 
below would be more punished if they carried water in buck- 
ets that were whole, than in such as were bored. To a chat- 
tering fellow, who was soliciting him for aid, he said, '* I will 
do what is sufficient for you, if you will send deputies to me, 
and forbear to come yourself." Once when he was at sea, 
in the company of some wicked men, he fell into the hands 
of pirates ; and when the rest said, " We are undone, if we 
are known." "But I," said he, "am undone if we are not 
known." He used to say that self-conceit was the enemy 
of progress. Of a rich man who was mean and niggardly, 
he said, " That man does not possess his estate, but his estate 
possesses him." He used to say that stingy men took care 
of their property as if it were their own, but derived no ad- 
vantage from it, as if it belonged to other people. Another 
of his sayings was, that young men ought to display courage, 
but that old men ought to be distinguished for prudence. 



B I O N . 87 

And that prudence was as much superior to the other virtues 
as sight was to the other senses. And that it was not right 
to speak of old age, at which every one is desirous to arrive. 
To an envious man who was looking gloomy, he said, "I 
know not whether it is because some misfortune has happen- 
ed to you, or some good fortune to some one else." One 
thing that he used to say was, that a mean extraction was a 
bad companion to freedom of speech. For : — 

It does enslave a man, however bold 
His speech may be. 

And another was, that " we ought to keep our friends, what- 
ever sort of people they may be, so that we may not seem 
to have been intimate with wicked men, or to have aban- 
doned good men." 

Very early in his career he abandoned the school of the 
Academy, and at the same time became a disciple of Crates. 
Then he passed over to the sect of the Cynics, taking their 
coarse cloak and wallet. For what else could ever have 
changed his nature into one of such apathy ? After that, he 
adopted the Theodorean principles, having become a disciple 
of Theodorus the Atheist, who was used to employ every 
kind of reasoning in support of his system of philosophy. 
After leaving him he became a pupil of Theophrastus, the 
Peripatetic. 

He was very fond of theatrical entertainments, and very 
skilful in distracting his hearers by exciting a laugh, giving 
things disparaging names. And because he used to avail 
himself of every species of reasoning, they relate that Ere- 
tosthenes said that Bion was the first person who had 
clothed philosophy in a flowery robe. He was also very in- 
genious in parodying passages, and adapting them to circum- 
stances as they arose. And he jested on every part of music 
and geometry. He was a man of very expensive habits, 
and on that account he used to go from city to city, and 



88 BION. 

at times lie would contrive the most amazing devices. Ac- 
cordingly, in Rhodes, he persuaded the sailors to put on the 
habiliments of philosophical students, and follow him about ; 
and then he made himself conspicuous by entering the gym- 
nasium with his train of followers. He was accustomed 
also to adopt young men as his sons, in order to derive assist- 
ance from them in his pleasures, and to be protected by 
their affection for him. But he was a very selfish man, and 
very fond of quoting the saying, " The property of friends 
is common ;" owing to which it is said that no one is spoken 
of as a disciple of his, though so many men attended his 
school. And he made some very shameless; accordingly, 
Betion, one of his intimate acquaintances, is reported to have 
said once to Menedemus, " So Menedemus constantly spends 
the evening with Bion, and I see no harm in it." He used 
also to talk with great impiety to those who conversed 
with him, having derived his opinions on this subject from 
Theodorus. 

At a later period he became afflicted with disease, as the 
people of Ohalcis said, for he died there. He was persuaded to 
wear amulets and charms, and to show his repentance for the 
insults that he had offered to the G-ods. But he suffered fear- 
fully for want of proper people to attend him, until Antigonus 
sent him two servants. And he followed him in a litter, as 
Pharorinus relates in his Universal History. And the circum- 
stances of his death we have ourselves spoken of in the follow- 
ing lines : — 

We hear that Bion the Borysthenite, 

Whom the ferocious Scythian land brought forth, 

Used to deny that there were Gods at all. 

Now, if he'd persevered in this opinion, 

One would have said he speaks just as he thinks ; 

Though certainly his thoughts are quite mistaken. 

But when a lengthened sickness overtook him, 

And he began to fear lest he should die ; 

This man who heretofore denied the Gods, 

And would not even look upon a temple, 



C ALAN US. 

And mocked all those who e'er approached the Goda 

With prayer or sacrifice ; who ne'er, not even 

For his own hearth, and home, and household table, 

Regaled the Gods with savory fat and incense, 

Who never once said, " I have sinned, but spare me." 

Then did this atheist shrink, and give his neck 

To an old woman to hang charms upon, 

And bound his arms with magic amulets, 

With laurel branches blocked his doors and windows, 

Ready to do and venture anything 

Rather than die. Fool that he was, who thought 

To win the Gods to come into existence, 

Whenever he might think he wanted them. 

So wise too late, when now mere dust and ashes, 

He put his hand forth, Hail, great Pluto, Hail ! 



CALANUS. 



Calantjs was of the sect of Gymnosophists, called Brach- 
man. The Brachmans were all of one tribe. From the time 
of their birth they were put under guardians, and, as they 
grew up, had a succession of instructors. They were in a state 
of pupilage till thirty-six years of age ; after which they were 
allowed to live more at large, to wear fine linen and gold 
rings, to live upon the flesh of animals not employed in labor, 
and to marry as many wives as they pleased. Others sub- 
mitted, through their whole lives, to stricter discipline, and 
passed their days upon the banks of the Ganges, with no other 
food than fruits, herbs, and milk. The Samaneeans were a 
society formed of those who voluntarily devoted themselves 
to the study of divine wisdom. They gave up all private prop- 
erty, and committed their children to the care of the state, 
and their wives to the protection of their relations. They 
were supported at the public expense, and spent their time in 
contemplation, in conversation on divine subjects, or in acts 
of religion. A wonderful circumstance is related concerning 
these philosophers; that frequently, without any apparent 

8* 



90 CALVIUS TAURUS. 

reason from ill health or misfortunes, they formed a resolution 
to quit the world, and, when they had communicated their 
intention to their friends, immediately, without any express- 
ions of regret on the one side, or of apprehension on the 
other, threw themselves into a fire which they had them- 
selves prepared for the occasion. There was another sect, 
called the Hylobeons, who lived entirely in forests, upon 
leaves and wild fruits, wore no other clothing than the bark 
of trees, and practised the severest abstinence of every kind. 

From this account of the Indian Gymnosophists, it is easy 
to perceive that they were more distinguished by severity of 
manners than by the cultivation of science, and that they more 
resembled modern monks than ancient philosophers. 

In a conference which was held with Onesicritus, Calanus, 
when he saw Alexander's messengers clothed with fine linen 
garments, and elegantly adorned, laughed at their effeminacy, 
and requested them, if they wished to hold any conference 
with the Brachmans, to lay aside their ornaments, and, like 
them, recline upon the naked rocks. It is also related, that 
when he found the infirmities of age coming upon him, he de- 
voted himself to voluntary death, and ascending the funeral 
pile, said, " Happy hour of departure from life, in which, as it 
happened to Hercules, after the mortal body is burned, the 
soul shall go forth into light!" 



CALVISIUS TAUKUS. 

Calvisius Taurus flourished under the reign of Antoninus 
Pius. He is mentioned as a Platonist of some note. Among 
his pupils was Aulus Gellius, a man of various learning, who 
has preserved several specimens of his preceptor's method of 
philosophizing. He examined all sects, but preferred the Pla- 
tonic, in which he had at least the merit of avoiding the infec- 



C A T O . 91 

tion of that spirit of confusion, which at this period seized al- 
most the whole body of the philosophers, especially those of the 
Platonic school. He lived at Athens, and taught, not in the 
schools, but at his table. A. Gellius, who was frequently one 
of his guests, and whose JSToctis Atticce, "Attic Evenings," are 
doubtless much indebted to these philosophical entertainments, 
gives the following account of the manner in which they were 
conducted: "Taurus, the philosopher, commonly invited a 
select number of his friends to a frugal supper, consisting of 
lentils, and a gourd, cut into small pieces upon an earthen 
dish ; and during the repast, philosophical conversation upon 
various topics was introduced. His constant disciples, whom 
he called his family, were expected to contribute their share 
towards the small expense which attended these simple re- 
pasts, in which interesting conversation supplied the place of 
luxurious provision. Every one came furnished with some 
new subject of inquiry, which he was allowed in his turn to 
propose, and which, during a limited time, was debated. The 
subjects of discussion, in these conversations, were not of the 
more serious and important kind, but such elegant questions 
as might afford an agreeable exercise of the faculties in the 
moments of convivial enjoyment ; and these Taurus afterwards 
frequently illustrated more at large with sound erudition." 



CATO. 

Cato the younger was a Stoic in opinion and character. 
He is called Oato of Utica from the last memorable scene of 
his life. From his childhood he discovered in his countenance 
and language, and even in his sports, an inflexible spirit. He 
had such a natural gravity of aspect, that his features were 
scarcely ever relaxed into a smile. He was seldom angry, but 



92 C A T o . 

when provoked was not without difficulty appeased. In ac- 
quiring learning, he was slow of perception, but his memory 
faithfully retained whatever it received. Being in early life 
elected to the office of a flamen of Apollo, he made choice of 
Antipater, a Tyrian, of the Stoic sect, as his preceptor in 
morals and jurisprudence, that in his sacred character he 
might exhibit an example of the most rigid virtue. His lan- 
guage, both in private and public, was a true image of his 
mind, free from all affectation of novelty or elegance ; plain, 
concise, and somewhat harsh ; enlivened with strokes of genius, 
which could not be heard without pleasure. He inured him- 
self to endure, without injury, the extremes of heat and cold. 
To express his contempt of effeminate and luxurious manners, 
he refused to wear the purple robe which belonged to his 
rank, and often appeared in public without his tunic, and 
with his feet uncovered ; and this he did, not for the sake of 
attracting admiration, but to teach his fellow-citizens that a 
wise man ought to be ashamed of nothing which is not in it- 
self shameful. 

In the civil war, Oato carried his virtues with him into mili- 
tary life, and exhibited before his fellow commanders an exam- 
ple of unusual moderation, sobriety, and magnanimity. "Whilst 
he was in Macedonia, in the capacity of military tribune, it hap- 
pened that his brother Csepio, whom he had always loved, 
perished in shipwreck. Cato, upon this occasion, forgot his 
Stoical principles, and so far yielded to the impulse of nature, 
as to embrace, with many tears and lamentations, the dead 
body which had been cast upon the shore, and to bury it with 
splendid sepulchral honors. So difficult is it, by any artificial 
discipline of philosophy, to subdue the feelings of nature. 
During his residence in Greece, Oato having heard of an emi- 
nent Stoic, Athenodorus Cordyliones, who had rejected the 
proffered friendship of several princes, and was now passing 
his old age in retirement at Pergamus, resolved if possible to 
make him his friend ; and, as he had no hopes of succeeding 



C A T o . 93 

by message, undertook for this sole purpose a voyage into 
Asia. Upon the interview, Athenodorus found in Oato a soul 
so congenial with his own, that he was easily prevailed upon 
to accompany him into Greece, and, after the term of Oato's 
military service was expired, to reside with him, as his compan- 
ion and friend, at Rome. Cato boasted of this acquisition more 
than of all his military exploits. After his return, he devoted 
his time either to the society of Athenodorus, and his other 
philosophical friends, or to the service of his fellow-citizens in 
the forum. 

When Oato had, by diligent study, qualified himself for the 
duties of magistracy, he accepted of the office of questor. He 
corrected the abuses of this important trust, which negligence 
or dishonesty had introduced, and by his upright and steady 
administration of justice merited the highest applause. In 
every other capacity he manifested the same inviolable 
regard to truth and integrity. Whilst he was engaged in the 
business of the senate, he was indefatigable in the discharge 
of his senatorial duty; and even when he was among his 
philosophical friends at his farm in Lucania he never inter- 
rupted his attention to the welfare of the state. It was during 
a recess of this kind that he discovered the danger which 
threatened the republic from the machinations of Metellus ; 
and, with a truly patriotic spirit, he instantly determined that 
private enjoyment should give way to public duty. That he 
might be in a capacity to oppose with effect the designs of 
Metellus, he offered himself candidate for the office of Tribune 
of the people ; and being chosen, executed the office (notwith- 
standing the illiberal jests which Cicero, inconsistently enough 
with his general professions and character, on this occasion 
cast upon his Stoical virtue) with a degree of probity, candor 
and independence, which fully established the public opinion 
of his superior merit. 

At a period when the Eoman affairs were in the utmost 
confusion, and powerful factions were repeatedly formed 



94 



C ATO. 



against the state, Cato, withstood the assaults which were 
made upon liberty by Marcellus, Pompey, Caesar, and others, 
with such a firm and resolute adherence to the principles of 
public virtue, that no apprehension of danger to himself or 
his family could ever induce him to listen to any proposal 
which implied a treacherous desertion of his country. Whilst 
some were supporting the interest of Caesar, and others that 
of Pompey, Cato, himself a host, withstood them both, and 
convinced them that there was another interest still existing — 
that of the state. When he saw that the necessity of the 
times required it, in order that, of two impending evils, the 
least might be chosen, he persuaded the senate to create Pom- 
pey sole consul, that, if possible, he might crush the growing 
power of Caesar, which threatened destruction to the freedom 
of the republic. It was with this design alone that, upon 
Caesar's approach towards Rome, he declared himself on the 
side of Pompey, and that he afterwards became a companion 
of his flight, and at the head of an army supported his cause. 
The same public spirit afterwards prompted him to endeavor 
to save his country from the last extremities of civil war by 
proposing a reconciliation between the contending powers. 
And when Pompey treated the proposal with neglect, and 
seemed to distrust the adviser, Cato, still true to the cause of 
freedom, at the battle of Dyrrachium roused the languid spirit 
of the soldiers by an animated address ; but afterwards when, 
in the course of the engagement, he saw his countrymen 
butchering one another, he bitterly lamented the fatal effects 
of ambition. 

After the battle of Pharsalia, which at once cut off the 
hopes of Pompey, Cato, with a small band of select friends, 
and fifteen cohorts, of which Pompey had given him the com- 
mand, still attempted to support the expiring cause of liberty. 
His determination was to follow Pompey into Egypt, and 
there share his fate ; but when he arrived upon the African 
coast, he was met by Sextus, Pompey's younger son, who in- 



C A T o . 95 

formed him of his father's death. Oato, upon hearing these 
tidings, marched the small force which was under his com- 
mand into Libya, to meet Scipio, Pompey's father-in-law, and 
Varus, to whom Pompey had given the government in Africa, 
and who were paying their court to Juba. Though strongly 
importuned, he refused to take the command of the African 
forces from those officers, to whom it had been legally ap- 
pointed ; but, at the request of Scipio, and of the inhabitants, 
he took the charge of Utica. 

The defeat of Scipio and Juba, in the battle of Thapsus, 
contracted the remaining strength of the Koman republic 
within the walls of this small city. Here Cato, as his last 
effort in the service of his country, convened his little senate 
to deliberate upon measures for the public good. Their con- 
sultations proved ineffectual; and Oato despaired of being 
longer able to serve his country. He therefore advised his 
friends to provide for their safety by flight, but, for his own 
part, resolved not to survive the liberties of Eome. At the 
close of an evening, in which he had conversed with more 
than usual spirit on topics of philosophy, he retired with 
great cheerfulness into his chamber, where, after reading a 
portion of Plato's Phcedo, he ordered his sword to be brought. 
His attendants delayed ; and his son and friends importuned 
him to desist from his purpose. The stern philosopher dis- 
missed them from his apartment, and again took up the book. 
After a short interval, he executed his purpose by stabbing 
himself below the breast. By those who have been better in- 
structed, this action will, doubtless, be deemed criminal, and 
will be imputed to rashness, or to weakness. But it should 
be remembered that the situation of Oato, in concurrence 
with his Stoical principles, strongly impelled him to this fatal 
deed ; and that whatever censure he may deserve on this ac- 
count, he supported, through his whole life, a character of in- 
flexible integrity, and uncorrupted public spirit. Whilst he 



90 CARNEADES. 

lived, he held up before his fellow-citizens a pattern of manly 
virtue; and when he died, he taught the conquerors of the 
world that the noble mind can never be subdued. 

I see the world subdued, 
All but the mighty soul of Cato. 



CARNEADES. 



Caeneades, one of the most illustrious ornaments of the 
Academy, was an African, a native of Cyrene. The time of 
his birth has been a subject of much debate. It is probable 
that he was born in the third year of the hundred and forty- 
first Olympiad. He received his first knowledge of the art 
of reasoning from Diogenes, the Stoic ; whence he used some- 
times to say, in the course of a debate, " If I have reasoned 
right, I have gained my point; if not, let Diogenes return 
me my mince" meaning the price he had paid him for his in- 
struction. Afterwards, becoming a member of the Academy, 
he attended upon the lectures of Hegesinus, and by assiduous 
study became an eminent master of the method of disputing 
which Arcesilaus had introduced. He succeeded Hegesinus 
in the chair, and restored the declining reputation of the 
Academy. With Diogenes the Stoic, and Oitolaus the Peri- 
patetic, he was sent on an embassy from Athens to Eome, to 
complain of the severity of a fine inflicted upon the. Athen- 
ians, under the authority of the Romans, by their neighbors, 
the Sicyonians, for having laid waste Oropus, a town in 
Bceotia. The Athenians would undoubtedly, upon this occa- 
sion, employ none but those in whose judgment, eloquence, 
and integrity, they could confide. The three philosophers 
whom they entrusted with their embassy, whilst they were 
in Rome, gave the Roman people many specimens of Gre- 
cian learning and eloquence, with which till then they had 



CARNEADES. 97 

been unacquainted. Oarneades excelled in the vehement and 
rapid, Oitolaus in the correct and elegant, and Diogenes in 
the simple and modest kind of eloquence. Oarneades partic- 
ularly attracted the attention and admiration of his new 
auditors, by the subtlety of his reasoning, and the fluency 
of his language. Before Galba, and Cato the Censor, he 
harangued, with great variety of thought and copiousness of 
diction, in praise of justice. The next day, to establish his 
doctrine of the uncertainty of human knowledge, he under- 
took to refute all his former arguments. Many were capti- 
vated by his eloquence ; but Cato, apprehensive lest the Ro- 
man youth should lose their military character in the pursuit 
of Grecian learning, persuaded the senate to send back these 
philosophers, without further delay, to their own schools. 

From this incident, of which we shall afterwards have 
further occasion to take notice, it sufficiently appears that 
Oarneades was an eminent orator and philosopher. He ob- 
tained such high reputation in his school, that other philoso- 
phers, when they had dismissed their scholars, frequently 
came to hear him. In application to study he was indefati- 
gable. So intensely did he fix his thoughts upon the subject 
of his meditations, that even at meals he frequently forgot to 
take the food which was set before him. He strenuously 
opposed the Stoic Ohrysippus, but was always ready to do 
justice to his merit. He used to say, that "if there were 
no Ohrysippus, there would be no Oarneades;" intimating, 
that he derived much of his reputation as a disputant from 
the abilities of his opponent. His voice was remarkably 
strong, and he had such a habit of vociferation, that the 
master of the gymnastic exercises, in the public field, desired 
him not to speak so loud. In return, he requested some 
measure to regulate his voice ; to which the master very ju- 
diciously replied, " You have a measure, the number of your 
hearers." As Oarneades grew old, he discovered strong ap- 
prehensions of dying, and frequently lamented that the same 

9 



y» CARNEADES. 

nature which had composed the human frame could dissolve 
it. He paid the last deht to nature in the eighty-fifth, or, 
according to Cicero and Valerius Maximus, in the ninetieth 
year of his age. 

Diogenes Laertius relates of him, that he read all the 
hooks of the Stoics with great care, and especially those of 
Ohrysippus; and then he wrote replies to them, hut did it 
at the same time with such modesty, that he used to say, "If 
Ohrysippus had not lived, I should never have existed." It is 
said that at night he was not aware when lights were "brought 
in ; and that once he ordered his servant to light the candles, 
and when he had brought them in and told him; "Well, 
then," said he, " read by the light of them." 

He was a man of as great industry as ever existed ; not, 
1 owever, very much devoted to the investigation of subjects 
of natural philosophy, but more fond of the discussion of eth- 
ical topics, on which account he used to let his hair and his 
nails grow, from his entire devotion of all his time to philo- 
sophical pursuits. 

He appears to have been beset with fears of death, as he 
was continually saying, "Nature, who has put this frame 
together, will also dissolve it." And learning that Antipater 
had died after having taken poison, he felt a desire to imitate 
the boldness of his departure, and said, " Give me some too." 
And when they asked " What ?" " Some mead," said he. 
And it is said that an eclipse of the moon happened when 
he died, the most beautiful of all the stars, next to the sun, 
indicating (as any one might say) its sympathy with the phi- 
losopher. And Apollodorus, in his Chronicles, says that he 
died in the fourth year of the hundred and sixty-second Olym- 
piad, being eighty-five years old. 

I have written on him the following lines in logosedical 
Archebulian metre : — 

Why now, O Muse, do you wish me Carneades to confute ? 
He was an ignoramus, as he did not understand 



C H I L o . 99 

Why he should stand in fear of death. So once, when he 'd a cough, 
The worst of all diseases that affect the human frame, 
He cared not for a remedy ; but when the news did reach him, 
That brave Antipater had ta'en some poison, and so died, 
"Give me," said he, "some stuff to drink." "Some what?" "Some lus- 
cious mead." 
Moreover, he 'd this saying at all times upon his lips : 
" Nature did make me, and she does together keep me still ; 
But soon the time will come when she will pull me all to pieces." 
But still at last he yielded up the ghost ; though long ago 
He might have died, and so escaped the evils that befell him. 



OHILO. 

Ohilo was a Lacedaemonian, the son of Damagetus. He 
composed verses in elegiac metre to the number of two hun- 
dred ; and it was a saying of his that a foresight of future 
events, such as could be arrived at by consideration, was the 
virtue of a man. He also said once to his brother, who was 
indignant at not being an ephor, while he himself was one : 
" The reason is because I know how to bear injustice ; but 
you do not." And he was made ephor in the fifty -fifth Olym- 
piad ; but Pamphila says that it was in the fifty-sixth. And 
he was made first ephor in the year of the archonship of 
Euthydemus, as we are told by Sosicrates.* Ohilo was 
also the first person who introduced the custom of joining 
the ephors to the kings as their counsellors ; though Satyrus 
attributes this institution to Lycurgus. He, as Herodotus says, 
when Hippocrates was sacrificing at Olympia, and the caul- 
drons began to boil of their own accord, advised him either to 
marry, or, if he were married already, to discard his wife, and 
disown his children. 

They tell a story, also, of his having asked iEsop what Ju- 
piter was doing, and that iEsop replied, "He is lowering 

* An Ephor was a magistrate appointed by the people, and intended as a 
check upon the regal, or, as some say, upon the senatorial power. 



100 CHILO. 

what is high, and exalting what is low." Being asked in 
what educated men differed from those who were illiterate, 
he said, " In good hopes." Having had the question put to 
him, "What was difficult, he said, '- To be silent about secrets ; 
to make good use of one's leisure, and to be able to submit to 
injustice." And besides these three things he added further, 
"To rule one's tongue, especially at a banquet, and not to 
speak ill of one's neighbors; for if one does so one is sure to 
to hear what one will not like." He advised, moreover, " To 
threaten no one ; for that is a womanly trick. To be more 
prompt to go to one's friends in adversity than in prosperity. 
To make but a moderate display at one's marriage. Not to 
speak evil of the dead. To honor old age. To keep a watch 
upon one's self. To prefer punishment to disgraceful gain; 
for the one is painful but once, but the other for one's whole 
life. Not to laugh at a person in misfortune. If one is strong 
to be also merciful, so that one's neighbors may respect one 
rather than fear one. To learn how to regulate one's own 
house well. Not to let one's tongue outrun one's sense. To 
restrain anger. Not to dislike divination. Not to desire what 
is impossible. Not to make too much haste on one's road. 
"When speaking, not to gesticulate with the hand ; for that is 
like a madman. To obey the laws. To love quiet." 
And of all his songs this one was the most approved : — 

Gold is best tested by a whetstone hard, 
Which gives a certain proof of purity ; 
And gold itself acts as the test of men, 
By which we know the temper of their minds. 

They say, too, that when he was old he said, that he was 
not conscious of having ever done an unjust action in his life ; 
but that he doubted about one thing. For that once when 
judging in a friend's cause he had voted himself in accordance 
with the law, but had persuaded a friend to vote for his ac- 
quittal, in order that so he might maintain the law, and yet 
save his friend. 



CHILO. 101 

But he was most especially celebrated among the Greeks 
for having delivered an early opinion about Cythera an 
island belonging to Laconia. For having become acquainted 
with its nature, he said, " I wish it had never existed, or that, 
as it does exist, it were sunk at the bottom of the sea." And 
his foresight was proved afterwards. For when Demaratus 
was banished by the Lacedaemonians, he advised Xerxes to 
keep his ships at that island ; and Greece would have been 
subdued, if Xerxes had taken the advice. And afterwards 
Nicias, having reduced the island a* the time of the Pelopon- 
nesian war, placed in it a garrison of Athenians, and did a 
great deal of harm to the Lacedaemonians. 

He was very brief in his speech. On which account Arista- 
goras, the Milesian, calls such conciseness, the Chilonean 
fashion ; and says that it was adopted by Branchus, who built 
the temple among the Branchidse. Chilo was an old man, 
about the fifty-second Olympiad, when iEsop, the fable writer, 
flourished. And he died, as Hermippus says, at Pisa, after 
embracing his son, who had gained the victory in boxing at 
the Olympic games. The cause of his death was excess of joy, 
and weakness caused by extreme old age. All the spectators 
who were present at the games attended his funeral, paying 
him the* highest honors. And we have written the following 
epigram on him : — 

I thank you brighest Pollux, that the son 

Of Chilo wears the wreath of victory ; 
Nor need we grieve if at the glorious sight 

His father died. May such my last end be ! 

And the following inscription is engraved on his statue : — 

The warlike Sparta called this Chilo son, 
The wisest man of all the seven sages. 

One of his sayings was, " Suretyship, and then destruction." 
He was one of the seven wise men of Greece, and that im- 
portant saying is ascribed to him — Know thyself. 

9* 



102 CHRYSIPPUS. 



OHRYSIPPUS. 



Cheysipptjs was the son of Apollonius, a native of either 
Soli or Tarsus, and a pupil of Oleanthes, and while he was 
still living he abandoned him, and became a very eminent 
philosopher. He was a man of great natural ability, and o f 
great acuteness in every way, so that on many points he dis- 
sented from Zeno, and also from Oleanthes, to whom he often 
used to say that he only wanted to be instructed in the dog- 
mas of the school, and that he would discover the demon- 
strations for himself. But whenever he opposed him with 
any vehemence, he always repented, so that he used fre- 
quently to say : — 

In most respects I am a happy man, 
Excepting where Cleanthes is concerned ; 
For in that matter I am far from fortunate. 

And he had such a high reputation as a dialectician, that 
most people thought that if there were such a science as dia- 
lectics among the Gods, it would be in no respect different 
from that of Ohrysippus. But though he was so eminently 
able in matter, he was not perfect in style. 

He was industrious beyond all other men, as is plain from 
his writings ; for he wrote more than seven hundred and 
five books. And he often wrote several books on the same 
subject, wishing to put down everything that occurred to 
him, and constantly correcting his previous assertions, and 
using a great abundance of testimonies. So that, as in one 
of his writings he had quoted very nearly the whole of the 
Medea of Euripides, and some one had his book in his hands ; 
this latter, when he was asked what he had got there, made 
answer, " The Medea of Ohrysippus." And Apollodorus, the 
Athenian, in his Collection of Dogmas, wishing to assert that 
what Epicurus had written out of his own head, and with- 
out any quotations to support his arguments, was a great 



CHRYSIPPUS* 103 

deal more than all the books of Chrysippus, speaks thus (I 
give his exact words) : " For if any one were to take away 
from the hooks of Chrysippus all the passages which he quotes 
from other authors, his paper would be left empty." 

These are the words of Apollodorus ; but the old woman 
w T ho lived with him, as Dioles reports, used to say that he 
wrote five hundred lines every day. And Hecaton says, that 
he first applied himself to philosophy when his patrimony 
had been confiscated, and seized for the royal treasury. 

He was slight in person, as is plain from his statue which 
is in the Oeramicus, which is nearly hidden by the equestrian 
statue near it ; in reference to which circumstance, Carneades 
called him Cryxippus.* He was once reproached by some 
one for not attending the lectures of Ariston, who was draw- 
ing a great crowd after him at the time ; and he replied, " If 
I had attended to the multitude I should not have been a 
philosopher." And once, when he saw a dialectician pressing 
hard on Oleanthes, and proposing sophistical fallacies to him, 
he said, " Cease to drag that old man from more important 
business, and propose those questions to us who are young." 
At another time, when some one wishing to ask him some- 
thing privately, was addressing hitn quietly, but when he saw 
a multitude approaching began to speak more energetically, he 
said to him : — 

Alas, my brother ! now your eye is troubled ; 

You were quite sane just now ; and yet how quickly 

Have you succumbed to frenzy.f 

And at drinking parties he used to behave quietly, moving his 
legs about however, so that a female slave once said, " It is 
only the legs of Chrysippus that are drunk." And he had so 
high an opinion of himself, that once, when a man asked him, 
"To whom shall I entrust my son?" he said, "To me, for if 

* From krupto, to hide, and hippos, a horse, 
t These lines are from the Erestes of Euripides. 



104 CHRYSIPPUS. 

I thought that there was any one better than myself, I would 
have gone to him to teach me philosophy." In reference to 
which anecdote they report that people used to say of him : — 



He has indeed a clear and subtle head, 
The rest are forms of empty aether made.* 

And also : — 

For If Chrysippus had not lived and taught, 
The Stoic school would surely have been nought. 

But at last, when Arcesilaus and Lacydes, as Sotion records 
in his eighth book, came to the Academy, he joined them 
in the study of philosophy ; from which circumstance he got 
the habit of arguing for and against a custom, and discussed 
magnitudes and quantities, following the system of the Acad- 
emies. 

Hermippus relates, that one day, when he was teaching in 
the Odeum, he was invited to a sacrifice by his pupils ; and, 
that drinking some sweet unmixed wine, he was seized with 
giddiness, and departed this life five days afterwards, when he 
had lived seventy-three years; dying in the hundred and 
forty-third Olympiad, as Apollodorus says in his Chronicles. 
And we have written an epigram on him : — 

Chrysippus drank with open mouth some wine ; 
Then became giddy, and so quickly died. 
Too little reck'd he of the Porch's weal, 
Or of his country's, or of his own dear life : 
And so descended to the realms of Hell. 

But some people say that he died of a fit of immoderate 
laughter. For that seeing his ass eating figs, he told his old 
woman to give the ass some unmixed wine to drink after- 
wards, and then laughed so violently that he died. 

He appears to have been a man of exceeding arrogance. 
Accordingly, though he wrote such numbers of books, he 
never dedicated one of them to any sovereign. And when 

* This is a quotation from Homer. 



CHRYSIPPUS. 105 

Ptolemy wrote to Cleanthes, begging him either to come to 
him himself, or to send him some one, Sphserus went to him, 
but Chrysippus slighted the invitation. However, he sent for 
the sons of his sister, Aristocrea and Philocrates, and edu- 
cated them ; and he was the first person who ventured to 
hold a school in the open air in the Lyceum. 

There was also another Chrysippus, a native of Onidos, a 
physician, from whom Erasistratus testifies that he received 
great benefit. And another also, who was a son of his, and 
the physician of Ptolemy ; who, having had a false accusation 
brought against him, was apprehended and punished by being 
scourged. There was also a fourth, who was a pupil of Era- 
sistratus; and a fifth was an author of a work called Georgics. 

Now this philosopher used to delight in proposing questions 
of this sort : The person who reveals the mysteries to the 
uninitiated commits a sin ; the hierophant reveals them to 
the uninitiated ; therefore the hierophant commits sin ? An- 
other was, that which is not in the city, is also not in the 
house; but a well is not in the city, therefore there is not a 
well in the house. Another was, there is a certain head; 
that head you have not got ; there is then a head that you 
have not got ; therefore you have not got a head. Again, if 
a man is in Megara, he is not in Athens ; but there is a man 
in Megara, therefore there is not a man in Athens. Again, 
if you say anything, what you say comes out of your mouth ; 
but you say il a waggon ;" therefore a waggon comes out of 
your mouth. Another was, if you have not lost a thing, you 
have it; but you have not lost horns; therefore you have 
horns. Though some attribute this sophism to Eubulides. 

There are people who run Chrysippus down as having 
written a great deal that is very shameful and indecent. And 
in his treatise on Polity, he allows people to marry their 
mothers, or their daughters, or their sons. And he repeats 
this doctrine in his treatise on those things which are not de- 
sirable for their own sake, in the very opening of it. And in 



106 CHRYSIPPUS. 

the third book of his treatise on Justice, he devotes a thou- 
sand lines to bidding people to devour even the dead. 

In the second book of his treatise on Life and Means of 
Support, where he is warning us to consider beforehand, how 
the wise man ought to provide himself with means, he says, 
" And yet why need he provide himself with means ? for if it 
is for the sake of living, living at all is a matter of indiffer- 
ence ; if it is for the sake of pleasure, that is a matter of in- 
difference too ; if it is for the sake of virtue, that is of itself 
sufficient for happiness. But the methods of providing one's 
self with means are ridiculous ; for instance, some derive 
them from a king ; and then it will be necessary to humor 
him. Some from friendship ; and then friendship will become 
a thing to be bought with a price. Some from wisdom ; and 
then wisdom will become mercenary , and these are the accu- 
sations which he brings." 

The friends of the Stoic school complained that in the 
warmth of dispute, whilst he was attempting to load his ad- 
versary with the reproach of obscurity and absurdity, his 
own ingenuity often failed him, and he adopted such unusual 
and illogical modes of reasoning as gave his opponents great 
advantage against him. It was also a common practice with 
Ohrysippus, at different times, to take the opposite sides of the 
same question, and thus furnish his antagonists with weapons 
which might easily be turned, as occasions offered, against 
himself. Oarneades, who was one of his most able and skilful 
adversaries, frequently availed himself of this circumstance, 
and refuted Chrysippus by convicting him of inconsistency. 
Plutarch, in his piece, " On Stoic Contradictions," has collect- 
ed many examples of inconsistent opinions, most of which are 
ascribed to Chrysippus. 



CICERO. 107 



CICERO. 



Makctts Tullitjs Ciceeo was born at Arpinum, in the 647 th 
year of the city. During his childhood he distinguished him- 
self in literary contests with his companions, and studied under 
several masters, among whom he particularly mentions Plo- 
tius, a Greek preceptor, Phasdras, an Epicurean philosopher, 
and Archias, the poet. He made several juvenile attempts in 
poetry; but, if we may judge from the few fragments of his 
verses which remain, with no great degree of success. After 
he had finished his puerile studies, he applied his mature judg- 
ment to philosophy under Philo of Larissa ; a philosopher Avho 
was held in the highest esteem among the Romans, both for 
his learning and manners. Erom the same preceptor he also 
received instruction in rhetoric ; for, from the first, Cicero 
made philosophy subservient to eloquence. 

In the eighteenth year of his age Cicero studied law under 
the direction of Mucius Scasvola, an eminent augur, to who 
he was introduced by his father, when he put on the manly 
dress, with this advice, never to lose an opportunity of con- 
versing with that wise and excellent man. After a short in- 
terval, in which he engaged in military expeditions, first 
under Sylla, then under Pompey, he returned with great im- 
patience to his studies. At this time he put himself under 
the constant tuition of Diodotus, a Stoic, chiefly for the sake 
of exercising himself in dialectics, which the Stoics considered 
as a restricted kind of eloquence, but not without an assiduous 
attention to many other branches of study, in which this 
learned philosopher was well qualified to instruct him. About 
the age of twenty years he translated into the Latin tongue 
Xenophon's (Economics, and several books of Plato. A speci- 
men of his version of the Timseus of Plato is preserved in his 
works. 

Having thus prepared himself for his profession by indefati- 



108 



CICERO. 



gable study, Cicero made his first appearance in public at 
twenty-six years of age, and pleaded in defence of Roscius 
against the accusation of Sylla. Soon afterward^ under the 
plea of recruiting his strength, which lie had impaired by the 
violence of his oratorical exertions, but perhaps chiefly through 
fear of Sylla, whom he had opposed, he withdrew to Athens. 
Here he attended on Antiochus the Ascalonite ; but not ap- 
proving his doctrine, which differed from that of the Middle 
Academy, he became a hearer of Posidonius the Rhodian. By 
frequenting the schools of these and other preceptors, he ac- 
quired such a love of philosophy, that after his return to 
Rome, amidst the business of the forum and the senate, he al- 
ways found leisure for the speculations of the schools. Upon 
his second appearance in public, he met with some discourage- 
ment from a prevalent opinion that he was better qualified for 
the study of philosophy than for the business of active life. 
But his superior powers of eloquence soon subdued every 
prejudice against him, and raised him to the highest distinc- 
tion among his fellow- citizens. In the successive offices of 
questor, edile, and pretor, he acquitted himself with great 
reputation. In the consulate he obtained immortal honor by 
his bold and successful opposition to the machinations of Cati- 
line and his party, and received the glorious title of Father of 
his Country. 

The popularity which Cicero had acquired during his con- 
sulship exposed him to the envy of his rivals. Soon after- 
terwards, his unsuccessful attempt to bring Clodius to public 
justice brought upon him the resentment of that daring and 
seditious profligate ; and, notwithstanding all the efforts of 
the senate to protect him, the affair terminated in his banish- 
ment from Rome. Leaving Italy, he passed over into Greece, 
and visited his friend Plancius at Thessalonica, who afforded 
him a hospitable asylum. All good men lamented his dis- 
grace, and many Grecian cities vied with each other in 
offering him tokens of respect. But nothing could alleviate th e 



CICERO. 109 

dejection which ho suffered, whilst he lay under a sentence of 
banishment from the country which had been the seat of 
all his former honors. He remained inconsolable, till, after 
an interval of sixteen months, the Clodian party was sup- 
pressed by Pompey, and, by the unanimous voice of the senate 
and people, he was recalled. 

In Cicero's subsequent questorship in Cilicia his conduct was 
highly meritorious ; for he exercised his authority with exem- 
plary mildness and integrity, and, in the midst of war, culti- 
vated the arts of peace. On his return, he called at Ehodes, 
and made a short stay at Athens, where he had the satisfac- 
tion of revisiting the places in which his youthful feet had 
wandered in search of wisdom, and of conversing with many 
of his former preceptors and friends. 

When the flames of civil dissension between Pompey and 
Caesar began to burst forth, Cicero used his utmost influence 
with each party to bring them to terms of accommodation. 
Finding every attempt of this kind unsuccessful, he long re- 
mained in anxious deliberation, whether he should follow Pom- 
pey in a glorious and honorable, but ruined cause ; or should 
consult his own safety, and that of his friends, by following the 
rising fortunes of Caasar. Had the latter motive preponderated, 
he would have listened to the counsel of Caesar, who advised 
him, if on account of his advancing years he were averse to 
military life, to retire into some remote part of Greece, and 
pass the remainder of his days in tranquillity. But he could 
not persuade himself to desert the ancient constitution of his 
country, which he had hitherto honestly defended, and there- 
fore determined to join the party of Pompey. Afterwards, 
however, when he found that Pompey slighted his friendship, 
he repented of his resolution ; and, after the memorable battle 
of Pharsalia, instead of accepting the charge of the armament, 
which lay at Dyrrachium, as Cato advised, he met Csesar on 
his return from Asia, and accepted his friendship. 

Prom this time Cicero, no longer able to serve his country 
10 



110 CICERO. 

in the manner he wished, retired from public affairs, resolv- 
ing to devote himself wholly to the study of philosophy. He 
employed, the unwelcome leisure, which the ruin of the re- 
public afforded him, in reading or writing ; and. he found 
more satisfaction in converging with the dead in his valuable 
library at Tusculum, than in visiting Rome to pay homage to 
Caesar. His tranquillity was, however, soon interrupted by 
domestic vexations and afflictions. From causes which are 
not fully explained, he divorced his wife Terentia; and his 
daughter Tullia, who was married to Lentulus, died in child-bed. 
Soon after the death of Csesar, although it does not appear 
that Cicero had any concern in the conspiracy, he fell a sac- 
rifice to the resentment of Antony, who could not forget the 
severe Philippics which the orator had delivered against him. 
When the triumvirate was formed, and it was reciprocally 
agreed that some of the enemies of each party should be given 
up, Antony demanded the head of Cicero. Accordingly, 
after much contention, and on the part of Octavius a delay of 
three days, Cicero was registered among the hundred and 
thirty senators who were doomed to destruction by this san- 
guinary proscription. Apprized by his friends of the danger, 
he fled from place to place for safety ; always thinking, as was 
natural in such a situation, any other place more secure 
than the present. His last retreat was to a small farm which 
he had at Caieta. The house was surrounded by the appointed 
executioners of the bloody commission. After an unsuccess- 
ful attempt of his attendants to save him by conveying him 
away on a litter towards the sea, Popilius Laanas, a military 
tribune, in whose behalf Cicero had formerly pleaded when 
he was accused of parricide, came up to the litter, and struck 
off his head, while some of the soldiers, who were standing by, 
cut off his hands. These mangled remains of this great man 
were conveyed to Antony, who, in triumphant revenge, 
placed them upon the rostra of that pulpit from which the 
orations against him had been delivered ; not, however, with- 



CICERO. Ill 

out exciting much indignation in the populace, who bitterly- 
lamented the tragical end of this father of his country. His 
death happened in the 710th* year of the city, and in the sixty - 
fcurth year of his age. 

From the whole history of the life of Cicero it appears that, 
though exceedingly ambitious of glory, he wanted strength of 
mind sufficient to sustain him in its pursuit. Perpetually 
fluctuating between hope and fear, he was unable to support 
with equanimity the convulsions of a disordered state and the 
commotions of a civil war; and therefore was always attempt- 
ing to reconcile the contending parties, when he ought to 
have been maintaining, by vigorous measures, the cause which 
he approved. He was, in his natural temper, so averse to 
contention, that his spirits were depressed more than became 
a wise man, by private injuries and domestic vexations. On 
many public occasions he discovered an surprising degree of 
timidity. When under the immediate apprehension of danger 
from popular tumult, he undertook the defence of Milo, his 
panic was so great that he was seized with an universal tre- 
mor, and was scarcely able to speak; so that his client, not- 
withstanding his innocence, was sentenced to exile. His 
chief delight was in the society and conversation of learned 
men ; and many elegant specimens remain of his ability in re- 
lating, or framing philosophical conferences. But in his pri- 
vate intercourse with his friends, as well as in the forum and 
the senate, he discovered a degree of vanity scarcely to be 
reconciled with true greatness of mind. From these circum- 
stances, compared with the general character of his writings, 
it seems reasonable to conclude that Cicero's chief execellences 
were fertility of imagination and readiness of invention ; and 
that his talents were better adapted to the splendid offices of 
eloquence, than to the accurate and profound investigations 
of philosophy. 

* B. C. 43. 



112 CLEANTHES. 



CLEANTHES. 

Cleanthes was a native of Assos, and the son of Phanias. 
He was originally a boxer. And he came to Athens, having 
but four drachmas, as some people say, and attaching himself 
to Zeno, he devoted himself to Philosophy in a most noble 
manner ; and he adhered to the same doctrines as his master. 

He was especially eminent for his industry, so that as he 
was a very poor man, he was forced to undertake mercenary 
employments, and he used to draw water in the gardens by 
night, and by day he used to exercise himself in philosophical 
discussions; on which account he was called Phreantles* 
They also say that he was on one occasion brought before a 
court of justice, to be compelled to give an account what his 
sources of income were from which he maintained himself in 
such good condition ; and that then he was acquitted, having 
produced as his witness the gardener in whose garden he drew 
the water ; and a woman who was a mealseller, in whose es- 
tablishment he used to prepare the meal. And the judges of 
the Areopagus admired him, and voted that ten minse should 
be given to him ; but Zeno forbade him to accept them. 

They also say that Antigonus presented him three thousand 
drachmas. And once, when he was conducting some young 
men to some spectacle, it happened that the wind blew away 
his cloak, and it was seen then that he had nothing on under 
it; on which he was greatly applauded by the Athenians. 
And he was greatly admired by them on account of this cir- 
cumstance. 

They also say that Antigonus, who was a pupil of his, once 
asked him why he drew water ; and that he made answer, 
"Do I do nothing beyond drawing water? Do I not also 
dig, and do I not water the land, and do all sorts of things for 
the sake of philosophy ?" For Zeno used to accustom him to 

* That is a well-drawer, from phrear a well, and antleo to draw water. 



CLKANTHES. 113 

this, and used to require him to bring him an obol by way of 
tribute. ADd once he brought one of the pieces of money 
which he had collected in this way, into the middle of a 
company of his acquaintances, and said, " Oleanthes could 
maintain even another Oleanthes if he were to choose ; but 
others who have plenty of means to support themselves, seek 
for necessaries from others ; although they only study philos- 
ophy in a very lazy manner." And, in reference to these 
habits of his, Oleanthes was called a second Heracles. 

He was then very industrious; but he was not well en- 
dowed by nature, and was very slow in his intellect. On 
which account Timon says of him : — 

What stately ram thus measures o'er the ground, 
And master of the flock surveys them round ? 
What citizen of Assos, dull and cold, 
Fond of long words, a mouth-piece, but not bold. 

And when he was ridiculed by his few pupils, he used to 
bear it patiently. 

He did not even object to the name when he was called an 
ass ; but only said that he was the only animal able to bear 
the burdens which Zeno put upon him. And once, when he 
was reproached as a coward, he said, "That is the reason 
why I make but few mistakes." He used to say, in justifica- 
tion of his preference of his own way of life to that of the 
rich, w That while they were playing at ball, he was earning 
money by digging hard and barren ground." And he very 
often used to blame himself. And once, Ariston heard him 
doing so, and said, "Who is it that you are reproaching?" 
and he replied, " An old man who has gray hair, but no 
brains." 

When some one once said to him, that Arcesilaus did not do 
what he ought, " Desist," he replied, " and do not blame him ; 
for if he destroys duty as far his words go, at all events he es- 
tablishes it by his actions." Arcesilaus once said to him, " I 
never listen to flatterers." "Yes," rejoined Oleanthes, "I 
10* 



114 CLEANTHES. 

flatter you, when I say that though you say one thing, you do 
another." "When some one once asked him what lesson he 
ought to inculcate on his son, he replied, " The warning of 
Electra:"— 

Silence, silence, gently step. 

When a Lacedaemonian once said in his hearing, that labor 
was a good thing, he was delighted, and addressed him :— 

Oh, early worth, a soul so wise and young 
Proclaims you from the sage Lycurgus sprung. 

Once when he was conversing with a youth, he asked him 
if he felt; and as he said that he did, " Why is it then," said 
Oleanthes, " that I do not feel that you feel ?" 

When Sositheus, the poet, said in the theatre where he was 
present : — 

Men whom the folly of Cleanthes urges ; 

He continued in the same attitude ; at which the hearers were 
surprised, and applauded him, but drove Sositheus away. And 
when he expressed his sorrow for having abused him in this 
manner, he answered him gently, saying, "It would be a pre- 
posterous thing for Bacchus and Hercules to bear being ridi- 
culed by the poets without any expression of anger, and for 
me to be indignant at any chance attack." He used also to 
say, "That the Peripatetics were in the same condition as 
lyres, which though they utter sweet notes, do not hear them- 
selves." And it is said, that when he asserted that, on the 
principles of Zeno, one could judge of a man's character by 
his looks, some witty young men brought him a profligate fel- 
low, having a hardy look from continual exercise in the fields, 
and requested him to tell them his moral character ; and he, 
having hesitated a little, bade the man depart ; and, as he de- 
parted, he sneezed, " I have the fellow now," said Oleanthes, 
" he is a debauchee." 
He said once to a man who was conversing with him by 



OLEOBULUS. 115 

himself, "Yon are not talking to a bad man." And when 
some one reproached him with his old age, he rejoined, u I 
too wish to depart, but when I perceive myself to be in 
good health in every respect, and to be able to recite and 
read, I am content to remain." They say, too, that he nsed 
to write down all that he heard from Zeno on oyster shells, 
and on the shoulder-blades of oxen, from want of money to 
buy paper with. 

He died in the following manner : His gums swelled very 
much ; and, at the command of his physicians, he abstained 
from food for two days. And he got so well that his physicians 
allowed him to return to all his former habits ; but he refused, 
and saying that he had now already gone part of the way, he 
abstained from food for the future, and so died ; being, as 
some report, eighty years old, and having been a pupil of Zeno 
nineteen years. "We have written a playful epigram on him 
also, which rims thus : — 

I praise Cleanthes, but praise Pluto more ; 
Who could not bear to see him grown so old, 
So gave him rest at last among the dead, 
Who'd draw such loads of water while alive. 



CLEOBULUS. 



Cleobtjlus was a native of Lindus, and the son of Evagoras. 
But according to Duris he was a Oarian ; others again trace 
his family back to Hercules. He is reported to have been 
eminent for personal strength and beauty, and to have stud- 
ied philosophy in Egypt. He had a daughter named Cle- 
obulina, who used to compose enigmas in hexameter verse. 
They say also that he restored the temple of Minerva, which 
had been built by Danaus. 

Cleobulus composed songs and obscure sayings in verse, to 



116 CLEOBULUS. 

the number of three thousand lines, and some say that it was 
he who composed the epigram on Midas : — 

I am a brazen maiden lying here 
Upon the tomb of Midas. And as long 
As water flows, as trees are green with leaves, 
As the sun shines, and eke the silver moon ; 
As long as rivers flow, and billows roar, 
So long will I upon this much-wept tomb, 
Tell passers by, " Midas lies buried here." 

And as an evidence of this epigram being by him, they 
quote a song of Simonides, which runs thus : — 

What men possessed of sense 

Would ever praise the Lindian Cleobulus V 

Who could compare a statue made by man 

To overflowing streams, 

To blushing flowers of spring, 

To the sun's rays, to beams o' the golden morn, 

And to the ceaseless waves of mighty ocean ? 

All things are trifling when compared to God. 

While men beneath their hands can crush a stone ; 

So that such sentiments can only come from fools. 

And the epigram cannot possibly be by Homer, for he lived 
many years, as it is said, before Midas. 

There is also the following enigma quoted in the Com- 
mentaries of Pamphila, as the work of Cleobulus : — 

There was one father, and he had twelve daughters, 
Each of his daughters had twice thirty children, 
But most unlike in figure and complexion ; 
For some were white, and others black to view, 
And though immortal, they all taste of death. 

And the solution is, "the year." 

Of his apophthegms, the following are the most celebrated : 
Ignorance and talkativeness bear the chief sway among men. 
Opportunity will be the most powerful. Cherish not a 
thought. Do not be fickle, or ungrateful. He used to say, 
too, that men ought to give their daughters in marriage 
while they were girls in age, but women in sense ; as indi- 



CRANTOR. 117 

eating by this that girls ought to be well educated. Another 
of his sayings was, that one ought to serve a friend that he 
may become a greater friend ; and an enemy, to make him a 
friend. And that one ought to guard against giving one's 
friends occasion to blame one, and one's enemies opportunity 
of plotting against one. Also, when a man goes out of his 
house, he should consider what he is going to do ; and when 
he comes home again, he should consider what he has done. 
He used also to advise men to keep their bodies in health by 
exercise. To be fond of hearing rather than of talking. To 
be fond of learning rather than unwilling to learn. To speak 
well of people. To seek virtue and eschew vice. To avoid 
injustice. To give *he best advice in one's power to one's 
country. To be superior to pleasure. To do nothing by force. 
To instruct one's children. To be ready for reconciliation 
after quarrels. Not to caress one's wife, nor to quarrel with 
her, when strangers are present ; for that to do the one is a 
sign of folly, and to do the latter is downright madness. Not 
to chastise a servant while elated with drink ; for so doing, 
one will appear to be drunk one's self. To marry from 
among one's equals ; for if one takes a wife of a higher rank 
than one's self, one will have one's connexions for one's mas- 
ters. Not to laugh at those who are being reproved; for 
so one will be detested by them. Be not haughty when 
prosperous. Be not desponding when in difficulties. Learn 
to bear the changes of fortune with magnanimity. Modera- 
tion is the best thing. 



CRANTOR 



Ceantor, a native of Soli, being admired very greatly in 
his own country, came to Athens and became a pupil of Xeno- 
crates at the same time with Polemo. And he left behind 



118 GRANTOR. 

him memorials, in the shape of writings, to the number of 
30,000 lines, some of which, however, are by some writers at- 
tributed to Arcesilaus. 

They say of him that when he was asked what it was that 
he was so charmed with in Polemo, he replied, " That he had 
never heard him speak in too high or too low a key." When 
he was ill he retired to the temple of JEsculapius, and there 
walked about, and people came to him from all quarters, 
thinking that he had gone thither, not on account of any dis- 
ease, but because he wished to establish a school there. 

And among those who came to him was Arcesilaus, wish- 
ing to be recommended by him to Polemo, although he was 
much attached to him. But when he got well he became a 
pupil of Polemo, and was excessively admired on that account. 
It is said, also, that he left his property to Arcesilaus, to the 
amount of twelve talents ; and that, being asked by him where 
he would like to be buried, he said : 

It is a happy fate to lie entombed 
In the recesses of a well-lov'd land. 

It is said also that he wrote poems, and that he sealed them 
up in the temple of Minerva, in his own country ; and Mesetetus 
the poet wrote thus about him : — 

Crantor pleased men ; but greater pleasure still 

He to the Muses gave, ere he aged grew. 
Earth, tenderly embrace the holy man, 

And let him lie in quiet undisturb'd. 

And of all writers, Grantor admired Homer and Euripides 
most; saying that the hardest thing possible was to write 
tragically and in a manner to excite sympathy, without depart- 
ing from nature ; and he used to quote this line out of the 
Bellerophon : — 

Alas l why should I say alas ! for we 
Have only borne the usual fate of man. 



CRATES. 119 

The following verses of Antagoras the poet are also attrib- 
uted to Crantor ; the subject is love, and they run thus : — 

My mind is much perplexed ; for what, O Love, 
Dare I pronounce your origin ? May I 
Call you chiefest of the immortal Gods, 
Of all the children whom dark Erebus 
And Royal Night bore on the billowy waves 
Of widest Oceau ? Or shall I bid you hail 
As son of proudest Venus ? or of Earth ? 
Or of the untamed winds ? so fierce you rove, 
Bringing mankind sad cares, yet not unmixed 
With happy good, so two fold is your nature. 

And he was very ingenious at devising new words and ex- 
pressions ; accordingly, he said that one tragedian had an un- 
hewn voice, all over bark ; and he said that the verses of a 
certain poet were full of moths ; and that the propositions of 
Theophrastus had been written on an oyster shell. 



CEATES. 

Crates was a Theban by birth and the son of Ascondus. 
There are the following sportive lines of his quoted : — 

The waves surround vain Peres' fruitful soil, 

And fertile acres crown the sea-born isle ; 

Land which no parasite e'er dares invade, 

Or lew'd seducer of a hapless maid ; 

It bears figs, bread, thyme, garlic's savory charms, 

Gifts which ne'er tempt men to detested arms, 

They'd rather fight for gold than glory's dreams. 

There is also an account-book of his much spoken of, which 
is drawn up in such terms as these : — 

Put down the cook for minas half a score, 
Put down the doctor for a drachma more : 
Five talents to the flatterer ; some smoke 
To the adviser, an obol and a cloak 
For the philosopher ; for the willing nymph, 
A talent 



120 CRATES. 

He was also nicknamed Door-opener, because he used to 
enter every house and give the inmates advice. These lines, 
too, are his : — 

All this I learnt and pondered in my mind, 
Drawing deep wisdom from the Muses kind, 
But all the rest is vanity. 

There is a line, too, which tells us that he gained from phi- 
losophy : — 

A peck of lupins, and to care for nobody. 

This, too, is attributed to him : — 

Hunger checks love ; and should it not, time does. 
If both should fail you, then a halter choose. 

He flourished about the hundred and thirteenth Olympiad. 

Antisthenes, in his Successions, says that he, having once, 
in a certain tragedy, seen Telephus holding a date basket, and 
in a miserable plight in other respects, betook himself to the 
Cynic philosophy; and having turned his patrimony into 
money (for he was of illustrious extraction), he collected three 
hundred talents by that means, and divided them among the 
citizens. And after that he devoted himself to philosophy 
with such eagerness, that even Philemon the comic poet men- 
tions him. Accordingly he says : — 

And in the summer he 'd a shaggy gown, 
To.inure himself to hardship; in the winter 
He wore mere rags. 

But Diocles says that it was Diogenes who persuaded him 
to discard all his estate and his flocks, and to throw his money 
into the sea ; and he says further, that the house of Orates 
was destroyed by Alexander, and that of Hipparchia under 
Philip. And he would very frequently drive away with his 
staff those of his relations who came after him, and endeav- 
ored to dissuade him from his design ; and he remained im- 
movable. 

Demetrius, the Magnesian, relates that he deposited his 
money with a banker, making an agreement with him, that 



CRATES. 121 

if his sons turned out ordinary ignorant people, he was then 
to restore it to them ; but if they became philosophers, then 
he was to divide it among the people, for that they, if they 
were philosophers, would have no need of anything. 

Pharorinus, in the second book of his Commentaries, relates 
a witty saying of his ; for he says that once, when he was 
begging a favor of the master of a gymnasium, on the behalf 
of some acquaintance, he touched his thighs ; and as he ex- 
pressed his indignation at this, he said, "Why, do they not 
belong to you as well as your knees? 1 ' He used to say that 
it was impossible to find a man who had never done wrong, 
in the same way as there was always some worthless seed in 
a pomegranate. On one occasion, he provoked Mcodromus, 
the harp-player, and received a black eye from him ; so he 
put a plaster on his forehead, and wrote on it, " Mcodromus 
did this." He used to abuse prostitutes designedly, for the 
purpose of practising himself in enduring reproaches. When 
Demetrius Phalereus sent him some loaves and wine, he at- 
tacked him for his present, saying, " I wish that the fountains 
bore loaves ;" and it is notorious that he was a water drinker. 

He was once reproved by the aadiles of the Athenians, for 
wearing fine linen, and so he replied, •' I will show you Theo- 
phrastus also clad in fine linen." And as they did not believe 
him, he took them to a barber's shop, and showed him to them 
as he was being shaved. At Thebes he was once scourged by 
the master of the gymnasium (though some say it was by Eu- 
thy crates, at Corinth), and dragged out by the feet ; but he 
did not care, and quoted the lines : — 

I feel, O mighty chief, your matchless might, 
Dragged, foot first, downward from th' ethereal height.* 

But Diodes says that it was by Menedemus, of Eretria, that 
he was dragged in this manner, for that as he was a handsome 
man, and supposed to be very obsequious to Asclepiades, the 

* This ia a parody on Homer. II. 59] . Pope's Version, 760. 
11 



122 CRATES. 

PHiasian, Orates touched his thighs, and said, "Is Asclepiades 
within?" And Menedemus was very much offended, and 
dragged him out, as has been already said; and then Orates 
quoted the above-cited line. 

Zeno, the Cittisaan, in his Apophthegms, says that he once 
sewed up a sheep's fleece in his cloak, without thinking of it; 
and he was a very ugly man, and one who excited laughter 
when he was taking exercise. And he used to say, when he 
put up his hands, " Courage, Crates, as far as your eyes and 
the rest of your body is concerned ; for you shall see those 
who now ridicule you, convulsed with disease, and envying 
your happiness, and accusing themselves of slothfulness." 
One of his sayings was, " That a man ought to study philoso- 
phy, up to the point of looking on generals and donkey- 
drivers in the same light." Another was, that " those who 
live with flatterers are as desolate as calves when in the com- 
pany of wolves ; for that neither the one nor the other are 
with those whom they ought to be, or their own kindred, but 
only with those who are plotting against them." 

"When he felt that lie was dying, he made verses on him- 
self, saying : — 

You 're going, noble hunchback, you are going 
To Pluto's realms, bent double by old age. 

For he was hump-backed from age. 

Alexander asked him '* Whether he wished to see the 
restoration of his country ?" To which he replied, " What 
would be the use of it ? For perhaps some other Alexander 
would come at some future time, and destroy it again : — 

But poverty, and dear obscurity, 

Are what a prudent man should think his country." 

He also said that he was 

A fellow-countryman of wise Diogenes, 
Whom even envy never had attacked. 

Menander, in his Twin-Sister, mentions him thus : — 



CRATES. 123 

For you will walk with me, wrapped in your cloak, 
As his wife used to with the Cynic Crates. 

He gave his daughter to his pupils, as he himself used to 
say:— 

To have and keep on trial for a month. 

There was another Crates, who was the son of Antigenes, 
and of the Thriasian burgh, and a pupil and attached friend 
of Polemo. He was also his successor as president of his 
school. 

And they benefited one another so much, that not only did 
they delight while alive in the same pursuits, but almost to 
their latest breath did they resemble one another, and even 
after they were both dead they shared the same tomb. In 
reference to which circumstance, Antagoras has written an 
epigram on the pair, in which he expresses himself thus : — 

Stranger, who passest by, relate that here 

The godlike Crates lies, and Polemo ; 
Two men of kindred nobleness of mind, 

Out of whose holy mouths pure wisdom flowed ; 
And they with upright lives did well display 

The strength of all their principles and teaching. 

And they say, too, that it was in reference to this that Arcesi- 
laus, when he came over to them from Theophrastus, said 
that they were some gods, or else a remnant of the golden 
race ; for they were not very fond of courting the people, 
but had a disposition in accordance with the saying of Dio- 
nysodorus, the flute-player, who is reported to have said, with 
great exultation and pride, that no one had ever heard his 
music in a trireme or at a fountain, as they had heard Ismenius. 
The following lines were written by a philosopher of this 
name : — 

'T is not one town, nor one poor single house, 
That is my country ; but in every land 
Each city and each dwelling seems to me 
A place for my reception ready made. 



124 DEMETRIUS 



DEMETRIUS 



Demetrius was a native of Phalerus, and the son of Pha- 
nostratus. He was a pupil of Theophrastus. 

As a leader of the people at Athens, he governed the city 
for ten years, and was honored with three hundred and sixty 
brazen statues, the greater part of which were equestrian ; 
and some were placed in carriages, or in pair-horse chariots, 
and the entire number were finished within three hundred 
days, so great was the zeal with which they were worked at. 
He governed his country for a long time in a most admirable 
manner. For he aggrandized the city by increased revenues 
and by new buildings, although he was a person of no distinc- 
tion by birth. 

He lived with a citizen of noble birth, named Lamia, as 
his mistress. Didymus, in his Banquets, says that he was 
called Beautiful Eyed, by some courtesan. It is said that he 
lost his eye-sight in Alexandria, and recovered it again by the 
favor of Serapis ; on which account he composed the paaans 
which are sung and spoken of as his composition to this day. 

He was held in the greatest honor among the Athenians, 
but nevertheless, he found his fame darkened by envy, which 
attacks everything ; for he was impeached by some one on 
a capital charge, and, as he did not appear, he was condemned. 
His accusers, however, did not become masters of his person, 
but expended their venom on the brass, tearing down his 
statues, and selling some and throwing others into the. sea, 
and some they cut up into chamber-pots. For even this is 
stated. And one statue alone of him is preserved, which is 
in the Acropolis. But Pharorinus, in his Universal History, 
says that the Athenians treated Demetrius in this manner at 
the command of the king ; and they also^ impeached him as 
guilty of illegality in his administration. But Hermippus 
says, that after the death of Oassander, he feared the enmity 



DEMETRIUS. 125 

of Antigonus, and on that account fled to Ptolemy Soter ; and 
that he remained at his court for a long time, and, among 
other pieces of advice, counselled the king to make over the 
kingdom to his sons by Eurydice. And as he would not 
agree to this measure, but gave the crown to his son by Ber- 
enice, this latter, after the death of his father, commanded 
Demetrius to be kept in prison until he should come to some 
determination about him. And there he remained in great 
despondency ; and while asleep on one occasion, he was bitten 
by an asp in the hand, and so he died. And he is buried in 
the district of Busiris, near Diospolis ; and we have written 
the following epigram on him :: — 

An asp, whose tooth of venom dire was full, 

Did kill the wise Demetrius. 
The serpent beamed not light from out his eyes, 

But dark and lurid hell. 

But Heraclides, in his Epitome of the Successions of Sotion, 
says that Ptolemy wished to transmit the kingdom to Phila- 
delphus, and that Demetrius persuaded him from doing so by 
the argument, " If you give it to another, you will not have 
it yourself." And when Menander, the comic poet, had an 
information laid against him at Athens (for this is a statement 
which I have heard), he was very nearly being convicted, for 
no other reason but that he was a friend of Demetrius. He 
was, however, successfully defended by Telesphorus, the son- 
in-law of Demetrius. 

In the multitude of his writings, and the number of lines 
which they amount to, he exceeded nearly all the Peripatetics 
of his day, being a man of great learning and experience on 
every subject. 

When he was told that the Athenians had thrown down his 
statues, he said, " But they have not thrown down my vir- 
tues, on account of which they erected them." He used to 
say that " The eyebrows were not an insignificant part of a 
man, for that they were able to overshadow the whole life." 

11* 



126 DEMETRIUS. 

Another of his sayings was, that " It was not Plutus alone who 
was blind, but Fortune also, who acted as his guide." Another, 
that " Eeason had as much influence on government, as steel 
had in war." On one occasion, when he saw a debauched 
young man, he said, " There is a square Mercury with a long 
robe, a belly, and a beard." It was a favorite saying of his, 
that in the case of men elated with pride one ought to cut 
something off their height, and leave them their spirit. An- 
other of his apophthegms was, that " At home young men 
ought to show respect to their parents, and in the streets to 
every one whom they met, and in solitary places to them- 
selves." Another, that " Friends ought to come to others in 
good fortune only when invited, but to those in distress of 
their own accord." 

Brucker states that he committed suicide. His account is 
that Demetrius, unable to support the repeated misfortunes he 
had met with, put an end to his life by the bite of an asp. 

This fact is supported by the concurrent testimony of the 
ancients. Hence it has, not without reason, been questioned 
whether credit be due to the reports of Aristobulus, Philo, 
Josephus, and others, that Demetrius Phalereus was librarian 
to Ptolemy Philadelphus, and that it was by his advice that 
this prince gave orders for a version of the Jewish scriptures 
from the Hebrew into the Greek language. The truth is, that 
the whole story of a royal mandate for this undertaking is 
destitute of satisfactory proof, and probably first arose from 
Jewish vanity, and was afterwards hastily adopted by the 
Christian fathers. It is most probable that the Septuagint 
version was the private labor of the Jews who were at this 
time resident in Egypt. 



DEMETRIUS, OP CORINTH. 127 



DEMETRIUS, OF CORINTH. 

There was another of the same name, Demetrius, of Corinth. 
So free and severe were his censures of the fashionable cus- 
toms and vices of the day, that he was banished from Rome 
by Nero. After this emperor's death, he returned, but, by his 
freedom of speech, he soon offended the emperor Vespasian, 
who punished him by depriving him of his liberty. Seneca, 
who was an intimate friend of Demetrius, speaks of him in 
language of the highest praise for his masculine eloquence, 
sound judgment, intrepid fortitude, and inflexible integrity. 
u Leaving," says he, " the nobles clad in purple, I converse 
with and admire the half-naked Demetrius ; and why do I 
admire him, but because I perceive that in the midst of his 
poverty he wants nothing ! When I hear this excellent man 
discoursing from his couch of straw, I perceive in him not a 
preceptor only, but a witness of the truth ; and I cannot 
doubt that Providence has endowed him with such virtues 
and talents that he might be an example and a monitor to the 
present age." 

It was a prominent maxim with Demetrius, that " It is bet- 
ter to have a few precepts of wisdom always at hand for use, 
than to learn many things which cannot be applied to prac- 
tice." He attended Thraseas Psetus in his last moments be- 
fore his execution, and fortified his mind by conversing with 
him upon subjects of philosophy. 



DEMOCRITUS 



Demooritus was a native of Aldera, or as some say, a citi- 
zen of Miletus. He was a pupil of some of the Magi and 
Chaldeans whom Xerxes had left with his father as teachers, 
when he had been hospitably received by them. 



128 DEMOCRITUS. 

He was one of three brothers who divided their patrimony 
among them ; and the most common story is, that he took the 
smaller portion, as it was in money, because he required money 
for the purpose of travelling; though his brothers suspected 
him of entertaining some treacherous design. Demetrius 
says, that his share amounted to more than a hundred talents, 
and that he spent the whole of it. 

He also says, that he was so industrious a man, thatahe cut 
off for himself a small portion of the garden which surrounded 
his house, in which there was a small cottage, and shut himself 
up in it. And on one occasion, when his father brought him 
an ox to sacrifice, and fastened it there, he for a long time did 
not discover it, until his father having roused him, on the pre- 
text of the sacrifice, told him what he had done with the ox. 

He further asserts, that it is well known that he went to 
Athens, and as he despised glory, he did not desire to be 
known ; and that he became acquainted with Socrates, with- 
out Socrates knowing who he was. "For I came," says he, 
" to Athens, and no one knew me." He it was who was the 
author of the saying, " Speech is the shadow of action." But 
Demetrius Phalereus, in his defence of Socrates, affirms that 
he never came to Athens at all. And that is a still stranger 
circumstance than any, if he despised so important a city, not 
wishing to derive glory from the place in which he was, but 
preferring rather himself to invest the place with glory. 

And Apollodorus, of Oyzicus, says he was intimate with 
Philolaus; "He used to practise himself," says An tisthenes, 
"in testing perceptions in various manners ; sometimes retiring 
into solitary places, and spending his time even among tombs." 

And he further adds, that when he returned from his travels, 
he lived in a most humble manner ; like a man who had spent 
all his property, and that on account of his poverty, he was 
supported by his brother Damasus. But when he had foretold 
some future event, which happened as he had predicted, and 
had in consequence become famous, he was for all the rest of 



DEMOCRITUS. 129 

his life thought worthy of almost divine honors by the gene- 
rality of people. And as there was a law, that a man who 
had squandered the whole of his patrimony, should not be al- 
lowed funeral rites in his country, Antisthenes says, that he, 
being aware of this law, and not wishing to be exposed to the 
calumnies of those who envied him, and would be glad to ac- 
cuse him, recited to the people his Avork called the Great 
"World, which is far superior to all his other writings, and that 
as a reward for it he was presented with five hundred talents ; 
and not only that, but he also had some brazen statues erected 
in his honor. And when he died, he was buried at the pub- 
lic expense ; after having attained the age of more than a 
hundred years. But Demetrius says, that it was his relations 
who read the Great World, and that they were presented with 
a hundred talents only ; and Hippobotus coincides in this state- 
ment. 

Athenodorus tells us, that once, when Hippocrates came to 
see him, he ordered some milk to be brought ; and that, when 
he saw the milk, he said that it was the milk of a black goat, 
with her first kid ; on which Hippocrates marvelled at his 
accurate knowledge. 

And Hermippus relates, that Democritus died in the fol- 
lowing manner: he was exceedingly old, and appeared at 
the point of death ; and his sister was lamenting that he would 
die during the festival of the Thesmophoria,* and so prevent 
her from discharging her duties to the Goddess ; and so he 
bade her be of good cheer, and desired her to bring him hot 
loaves every day. And, by applying these to his nostrils, he 
kept himself alive even over the festival. But when the days 
of the festival were passed (and it lasted three days), then he 
expired without any pain, as Hipparchus assures us, having 
lived a hundred and nine years. And we have written an epi- 
gram upon him in our collection of poems in every metre, 
which runs thus : — 

* The Thesmophoria was a festival in honor of Ceres. 



130 DEM ON AX. 

What man was e'er so wise, who ever did 
So great a deed as this Dernocritus? 
Who kept off death, though present for three days, 
And entertained him with hot steam of bread. 



DEMONAX. 



A Distinguished place among the genuine Cynics who were 
friends to virtue appears to be due to Demonax ; whose history, 
though related only by Lucian, deserves credit, since it is not 
probable that the Satirist, who lived at the same period, would 
have ventured to give a false narrative of a well-known char- 
acter, or that he would have gone so far out of his usual track 
of satire, merely to draw a fictitious portrait of a good man. 
Demonax, according to Lucian, was born in Cyprus. His parents 
were possessed of wealth and rank ; but he aspired after 
higher honors in the study of wisdom, and the practice of 
virtue. Early in life he removed to Athens, where he after- 
wards continued to reside. In his youth he was intimately 
conversant with the poets, and committed the most valuable 
parts of their writings to memory. When he engaged in the 
study of philosophy, he did not lightly skim over the surface of 
subjects, but made himself perfect master of the several sects. 
In his habit and manner of living, Demonax resembled Diog- 
enes, and is therefore properly ranked among the Cynics; 
but he imitated Socrates in making philosophy, not a specu- 
lative science, but a rule of life and manners. He never 
openly espoused the doctrines of any particular sect, but took 
from each whatever tenets he judged most favorable to 
moral wisdom. Avoiding all ridiculous singularity, disgusting 
severity, and forbidding haughtiness, he associated freely with 
all, and conversed with such graceful ease, that persuasion 
might be said to dwell upon his lips. He possessed the happy 
art of rendering even reproof acceptable ; like a prudent phy- 



DEMON AX. 131 

sician, curing the disease without fretting the patient. His 
simple manner of living gave him perfect independence ; and 
his virtues procured him such a degree of influence, that he 
was often employed in settling domestic dissensions. His phil- 
anthropy was universal ; and he never withdrew his regard 
from any, but such as would not be persuaded to forsake their 
vices. So perfect was his equanimity, that nothing ever deeply 
affected him, except the sickness or death of a friend. He 
lived nearly to the age of a hundred years, without suffering 
pain or disease, or becoming burdensome to any one. In ex- 
treme old age he went from house to house wherever he 
pleased, and was everywhere received with respect. As he 
passed along the streets the sellers of bread would beg him to 
accept of some from their hands ; and children would offer 
him fruits, and call him father. He died with the same placid 
countenance with which he had been accustomed to meet his 
friends; The Athenians honored his body with a public 
funeral, which was attended by a numerous train of philoso- 
phers and others, who lamented the loss of so excellent a man. 
If this picture, which is that of Lucian in miniature, was orig- 
inally taken from real life, the biographer had some reason to 
speak of Demonax as the best philosopher he ever knew. 

From the anecdotes of Demonax, related by Lucian, we 
shall select the following : — Soon after Demonax came to 
Athens, a public charge was brought against him for neglect- 
ing to offer sacrifice to Minerva, and to be initiated into the 
Eleusinian mysteries. Appearing before the assembly in a 
white garment, he pleaded that Minerva did not stand in need 
of his offerings; and that he declined initiation into the mys- 
teries because, if they were bad he ought not to conceal them, 
and if they were good, his love to mankind would oblige him 
to disclose them ; upon which he was acquitted. One of his 
companions proposing to go to the temple of Esculapius, to 
pray for the recovery of his son from sickness, Demonax said, 
" Do you suppose that Esculapius cannot hear you as well from 



132 



DIOGENES 



this place ?" Hearing two ignorant pretenders to philosophy 
conversing, and remarking that the one asked foolish ques- 
tions, and the other made replies which were nothing to the 
purpose, he said, " One of these men is milking a he-goat, 
while the other is holding a sieve under him. 1 ' Advising a 
certain rhetorician, who was a wretched declaimer, to perform 
frequent exercises, the rhetorician answered, "I frequently 
practise by myself." "No wonder," replied Demonax, "that 
you are so bad a speaker, when you practise before so foolish 
an audience." Seeing a Spartan beating his servant unmerci- 
fully, he said to him, " Why do you thus put yourself upon a 
level with your slave ?" When Demonax was informed that 
the Athenians had thoughts of erecting an amphitheatre for 
gladiators, in imitation of the Corinthians, he went into the 
assembly, and cried Out, " Athenians, before you make this re- 
solution, go and pull down the Altar of Mercy." 



DIOGENES. 



Diogenes was a native of Sinope, the son of Tresius, a 
money-changer. And Diodes says that he was forced to flee 
from his native city, as his father kept the public bank there, 
and had adulterated the coinage. But Eubulides, in his essay 
on Diogenes, says, that it was Diogenes himself who did this, 
and that he was banished with his father. And, indeed, he 
himself, in his Perdalus, says of himself that he had adul- 
terated the public money. Others say that he was one of the 
curators, and was persuaded by the artisans employed, and 
that he went to Delphi, or else to the oracle at Delos, and 
there consulted Apollo as to whether he should do what people 
were trying to persuade him to do ; and that, as the God gave 
him permission to dp so, Diogenes, not comprehending that 



DIOGENES. 133 

the God meant that he might change the political customs* 
of his countiw if he could, adulterated the coinage ; and being 
detected, was banished, as some people say, but as other ac- 
counts have it, took the alarm and fled away of his own 
accord. Some again, say that he adulterated the money which 
he had received from his father ; and that his father was 
thrown into prison and died there ; but that Diogenes escaped 
and went to Delphi, and asked, not whether he might tamper 
with the coinage, but what he could do to become very cele- 
brated, and that in consequence he received the oracular an- 
swer which I have mentioned. 

When . he came to Athens he attached himself to Antis- 
thenes ; but as he repelled him, because he admitted no one, 
he at last forced his way to him by his pertinacity. And once, 
when he raised his stick at him, he put his head under it, and 
said, " Strike, for you will not find any stick hard enough to 
drive me away as long you continue to speak." And from 
this time forth he was one of his pupils ; and being an exile, 
he naturally betook himself to a simple mode of life. 

And when, as Theophrastus tells us in his Megaric Phi- 
losopher, he saw a mouse running about and not seeking for a 
bed, nor taking care to keep in the dark, nor looking for any 
of those things which appear enjoyable to such an animal, he 
found a remedy for his own poverty. He was, according to 
the account of some people, the first person who doubled up 
his cloak out of necessity, and who slept in it ; and Avho car- 
ried a wallet, in which he kept his food ; and who used. what- 
ever place was near for all sorts of purposes, eating and sleep- 
ing, and conversing in it. In reference to which habit he 
used to say, pointing to the Colonnade of Jupiter, and to the 
Public Magazine, " that the Athenians had built him places to 
live in." Being attacked with illness, he supported himself 

* The passage is not free from difficulty ; but the thing which misled 
Diogenes appears to have been that yiomisma, the word here used, meant both 
" a coin, or coinage," and " a custom." 

12 



134 DIO GENES. 

with a staff; and after that lie carried it continually, not in- 
deed in the city, but whenever he was walking in the roads, 
together with his wallet. 

When he had written to some one to look out and get ready 
a small house for him, as he delayed to do it, he took a cask 
which he found in the Temple of Cybele, for his house, as he 
himself tells us in his letters. And during the summer he 
used to roll himself in the warm sand, but in winter he would 
embrace statues all covered with snow, practising himself, on 
every occasion, to endure anything. 

He was very violent in expressing his haughty disdain of 
others. He said that the schole (school) of Euclides was chole 
(gall). And he used to call Plato's diatribe (discussions) Jcata- 
tribe (disguise). It was also a saying of his that the Dionys- 
ian games were a great marvel to fools ; -and that the dema- 
gogues were the ministers of the multitude. He used likewise 
to say, " that when in the course of his life he beheld pilots. 
and physicians, and philosophers, he thought man the wisest 
of all animals; but when again he beheld interpreters of 
dreams, and soothsayers, and those who listened to them, and 
men puffed up with glory or riches, then he thought that 
there was not a more foolish animal than man." Another of his 
sayings was, " that he thought a man ought oftener to provide 
himself with a reason than with a halter." On one occasion, 
when he noticed Plato at a very costly entertainment tasting 
some olives, he said, " O you wise man ! why, after having 
sailed to Sicily for the sake of such a feast, do you not now 
enjoy what you have before you?" And Plato replied, "By 
the Gods, Diogenes, while I was there I ate olives and all such 
things a great deal." Diogenes rejoined, " What then did you 
w r ant to sail to Syracuse for ? Did not Attica at that time 
produce any olives ?" But Phavorinus, in his Universal His- 
tory, tells this story of Aristippus. At another time he was 
eating dried figs, when Plato met him, and he said to him, 
" You may have a share of these ;" and as he took some and 



DIOGENES. 135 

ate them, lie said, " I said that you might have a share of 
them, not that you might eat them all." On one occasion 
Plato had invited some friends who had come to him from 
Dionysius to a banquet, and Diogenes trampled on his carpets, 
and said, " Thus I trample on the empty pride of Plato ;" and 
Plato made him answer, " How much arrogance are you dis- 
playing, O Diogenes ! when you think that you are not arro- 
gant at all." But as others tell the story, Diogenes said, 
" Thus I trample on the pride of Plato ;" and that Plato re- 
joined, " With quite as much pride yourself, Diogenes." 
Sotion too, in his fourth hook, states, that the Cynic made the 
following speech to Plato : Diogenes once asked him for some 
wine, and then for some dried figs ; so he sent him an entire 
jar full ; and Diogenes said to him, " Will you, if you are 
asked how many two and two make, answer twenty ? In this 
way, you neither give with any reference to what you are 
asked for, nor do you answer with reference to the question 
put to you." He used also to ridicule him as an interminable 
talker. When he was asked where in Greece he saw virtuous 
men; "Men," said he, "nowhere; but I see good boys in 
Lacedsemon." On one occasion, when no one came to listen 
to him while he was discoursing seriously, he began to whistle. 
And then when people flocked round him, he reproached them 
for coming with eagerness to folly, but being lazy and indiffer- 
ent about good things. One of his frequent sayings was, 
" That men contended with one another in punching and 
kicking, but that no one showed any emulation in the pursuit 
of virtue." He used to express his astonishment at the gram- 
marians for being desirous to learn everything about the mis- 
fortunes of Ulysses, and being ignorant of their own. He 
used also to say, " That the musicians fitted the strings to the 
lyre properly, but left all the habits of their soul ill-arranged." 
And, " That mathematicians kept their eyes fixed on the sun 
and moon, and overlooked what was under their feet." " That 
orators were anxious to speak justly, but not at all about 



136 DIOGENES. 

acting so." Also, " That misers blamed money, but were pre- 
posterously fond of it." He often condemned those who 
praise the just for being superior to money, but who at the 
same time are eager themselves for great riches. He was also 
very indignant at seeing men sacrifice to the Gods to procure 
good health, and yet at the sacrifice eating in a manner 
injurious to health. He often expressed his surprise at slaves, 
who, seeing their masters eating in a gluttonous manner, still 
do not themselves lay hands on any of the eatables. He 
would frequently praise those who were about to marry, and 
yet, did not marry ; or who were about to take a voyage, and 
yet did not take a voyage ; or who were about to engage in 
affairs of state, and did not do so; and those who were 
about to rear children, yet did not rear any ; and those who 
were preparing to take up their abode with princes, and 
yet did not take it up. One of his sayings was, " That one ought 
to hold out one's hand to a friend without closing the fingers." 

Hermippus, in his Sale of Diogenes, says that he was taken 
prisoner and put up to be sold, and asked what he could do ; 
and he answered, " Govern men." And so he bade the crier 
" give notice that if any one wants to purchase a master, there 
is one here for him." When he was ordered not to sit down, 
"It makes no difference," said he, "for fish are sold, be where 
they may." He used to say, that he " wondered at men 
always ringing a dish or jar before buying it, but being con- 
tent to judge of a man by his loo,; alone." When Xeniades 
bought him, he said to him that he ought to obey him even 
though he was his slave ; for that a physician or a pilot would 
find men to obey them even though they might be slaves." 

And Eubulus says, in his essay entitled, The Sale of Diog- 
enes, that he taught the children of Xeniades, after their 
other lessons, to ride, and shoot, and sling, and dart. And 
then in the gymnasium he did not permit the trainer to exer- 
cise them after the fashion of athletes, but exercised them 
himself to just the degree sufficient to give them a good 



DIOGENES. 137 

color and good health. And the boys retained in their mem- 
ory many sentences of poets and prose writers, and of Diog- 
enes himself; and he used to give them a concise statement 
of everything, in order to strengthen their memory ; and at 
home he used to teach them to wait upon themselves, con- 
tenting themselves with plain food, and drinking water. 
He accustomed them to cut their hair close, and to eschew 
ornament, and to go without tunics or shoes, and to keep 
silent, looking at nothing except themselves as they walked 
along. He used also to take them out hunting; and they 
paid the greatest attention and respect to Diogenes himself, 
and spoke well of him to their parents. 

And the same author affirms, that he grew old in the house- 
hold of Xeniades, and that when he died he was buried by 
his sons. And that while he was living with him, Xeniades 
once asked him how he should bury him ; and he said, " On 
my face ;" and when he was asked why, he said, " Because in 
a little while everything will be turned upside down." And 
he said this because the Macedonians were already attaining 
power, and becoming a mighty people from having been very 
inconsiderable. Once, when a man had conducted him into 
a magnificent house, and had told him that he must not spit, 
after hawking a little, he spit in his face, saying that he could 
not find a worse place. But some tell this story of Aristippus. 
Once he called out, " Holloa, men." And when some people 
gathered round him in consequence, he drove them away 
with his stick, saying, '• I called men, and not dregs." They 
also relate that Alexander said, that if he had not been Alex- 
ander, he should have liked to be Diogenes. On one occasion 
he went half shaved into an entertainment of young men, 
and so was beaten by them. And afterwards he wrote the 
names of all those who had beaten him on a white tablet, 
and went about with the tablet round his neck, so as to ex- 
pose them to insult, as they were generally condemned and 
reproached for their conduct. 

12* 



138 DIOGENES. 

He used to say that he was " the hound of those who were 
praised; but that none of those who praised them dared to go 
out hunting with him." A man once said to him, "I con- 
quered men at the Pythian games; 1 ' on which he said, "I 
conquer men, hut you only conquer slaves." When some 
people said to him, " You are an old man, and should rest for 
the remainder of your life," "Why so?" replied he, "suppose 
I had run a long distance, ought I to stop when I was near the 
end, and not rather press on ?" Once, when he was invited to 
a banquet, he said that he would not come : for that the day 
before no one had thanked him for coming. He used to go 
bare foot through the snow, and to do a number of other things 
which have been already mentioned. Once he attempted to 
eat raw meat, but he could not digest it. On one occasion he 
found Demosthenes, the orator, dining in an inn ; and as he 
was slipping away, he said to him, " You will now be ever so 
much more in an inn."* Once, when some strangers wished 
to see Demosthenes, he stretched out his middle finger, and 
said, " This is the great demagogue of the Athenian people." 
When some one had dropped a loaf, and was ashamed to pick 
it up again, he wishing to give him a lesson, tied a cord round 
the neck of a bottle and dragged it all through the Oeramicus. 
He used to say, that he imitated the teachers of choruses, for 
that they spoke too loud, in order that the rest might catch 
the proper tone. Another of his sayings was, that " most men 
were within a finger's breadth of being mad. If, then, any 
one were to walk along, stretching out his middle finger, he 
will seem to be mad ; but if he puts out his fore finger, he will 
not be thought so." Another of his sayings was, that, " things 
of great value were often sold for nothing, and vice versa* Ac- 
cordingly, that a statue would fetch three thousand drachmas, 
and a bushel of meal only two obols ;" and when Xeniades had 
bought him, he said to him, " Come, do what you are ordered 
to." And when he said — 

t This line is from Euripides, Medea, 



DIOGENES. 139 

" The streams of sacred rivers now 
Run backwards to their source !" 

"Suppose," rejoined Diogenes, " you had been sick, and had 
bought a physician, could you refuse to be guided by him, and 
tell him — 

"The streams of sacred rivers now 
Run backwards to their source ?" 

Once a man came to him, and wished to study philosophy as 
his pupil ; and he gave him a saperda * and made him follow 
him. And as he from shame threw it away and departed, he 
soon afterwards met him and, laughing, said to him, "A sa- 
perda has dissolved your friendship for me." But Diodes tells 
this story in the following manner; that when some one said 
to him, " Give me a commission, Diogenes," he carried him off, 
and gave him a half-penny worth of cheese to carry. And as 
he refused to carry it, " See," said Diogenes, " a half-penny 
worth of cheese has broken off our friendship." 

On one occasion he saw a child drinking out of its hands, 
and so he threw away the cup which belonged to his wallet, 
saying, " That child has beaten me in simplicity." He also 
threw away his spoon, after seeing a boy, when he had broken 
his vessel, take up his lentils with a crust of bread. And he 
used to argue thus, — "Everything belongs to the gods ; and 
wise men are the friends of the gods. All things are in com- 
mon among friends; therefore everything belongs to wise 
men." Once he saw a woman falling clown before the Gods 
in an unbecoming attitude ; he, wishing to cure her of her 
superstition, as Zoilus of Perga tells us, came up to her, and 
said, "Are you not afraid, O woman, to be in such an inde- 
cent attitude, when some God may be behind you, for every 
place is full of him ?" He consecrated a man to iEsculapius, 
who was to run up and beat all those who prostrated them- 
selves with their faces to the ground ; and he was in the habit 
of saying that the tragic curse had come upon him, for that he 

was— 

* The saperda was the coracinus (a kind of fish) when salted. 



140 DIOGENES. 

Houseless and citiless, a piteous exile 

From his dear native land ; a wandering beggar, 

Scraping a pittance poor from day to day. 

And another of his sayings was, that he " opposed con- 
fidence to fortune, nature to law, and reason to suffering." 
Once, while he was sitting in the sun in the Craneuui, Alex- 
ander was standing by, and said to him, " Ask any favor you 
choose of me." And he replied, " Cease to shade me from the 
sun" — as some express it, " stand out of my light." On one 
occasion a man was reading some long passages, and when he 
came to the end of the hook and showed there was nothing 
more written, "Be of good cheer, my friends," exclaimed 
Diogenes, " I see land." A man once proved to him syllogis- 
tically that he had horns, so he put his hand to his forehead 
and said, " I do not see them." And in a similar manner he 
replied to one who had been asserting that there was no such 
thing as motion, by getting up and walking away. When a 
man was talking about the heavenly bodies and meteors, 
" Pray, how many days," said he to him, " is it since you came 
down from heaven ?" 

A profligate eunuch had written on his house, " Let no evil 
thing enter in." " Where," said Diogenes, "is the master of 
the house going?" After having anointed his feet with per- 
fume, he said that the ointment from his head mounted up to 
heaven, and that from his feet up to his nose. When the 
Athenians entreated him to be initiated in the Eleusinian mys- 
teries, and said that in the shades below the initiated had the 
best seats; "It will," he replied, "be an absurd thing if 
iEgesilaus and Epaminondas are to live in the mud, and some 
miserable wretches, who have been initiated, are to be in the 
islands of the blest." Some mice crept up to his table, and he 
said, " See, even Diogenes " maintains his favorites." Once, 
when he was leaving the bath, and a man asked him whether 
many men were bathing, he said "No;" but when a number 
of people came out, he confessed that there were a great many. 



DIOGENES. 141 

When Plato called him a dog, he said, " Undoubtedly, for I 
have come back to those who sold me." 

Plato defined man thus : " Man is a two-footed, featherless 
animal," and was much praised for the definition; so Diogenes 
plucked a cock and brought it into his school, and said, " This 
is Plato's man." On which account this addition was made to 
the definition, " With broad flat nails." A man once asked 
him what was the proper time for supper, and he made an- 
swer, " If you are a rich man, whenever you please ; and if 
you are a poor man, whenever you can." When he was at 
Megara he saw some sheep carefully covered over with skins, 
and the children running about naked ; and so he said, " It is 
better at Megara to be a man's ram, than his son." A man 
once struck him with a beam, and then said, " Take care." 
u What," said he, " are you going to strike me again ?" He 
used to say that " the demagogues were the servants of the 
people ; and garlands the blossoms of glory." Having lighted 
a candle in the day time, he said, " I am looking for a man." 
On one occasion he stood under a fountain, and as the bystand- 
ers were pitying him, Plato, who was present, said to them, 
" If you wish really to show your pity for him, come away ;" 
intimating that he was only acting thus out of a desire for no- 
toriety. Once, when a man had struck him with his fist, he 
said, u O Hercules, what a strange thing that I should be 
walking about with a helmet on without knowing it!" 

When Midias struck him with his fist and said, " There are 
three thousand drachmas for you ;" the next day Diogenes took 
the cestus of a boxer and beat him soundly, and said, " There 
are three thousand drachmas for you."* When Lysias, the 
drug-seller, asked him whether he thought that there were 
any Gods: " How," said he, " can I help thinking so, when I 
consider you to be hated by them?" but some attribute this 

* This is probably an allusion to a prosecution instituted by Demosthenes 
against Midias, which was afterwards compromised by Midias paying Demos- 
thenes thirty miuse, or three thousand drachmae. 



142 DIOGENES. 

reply to Theodoras. Once be saw a man purifying himself by 
washing, and said to him, "Ob, wretched man, do not you 
know that as you cannot wash away blunders in grammar by 
purification, so, too, you can no more efface the errors of a life 
in that same manner?" 

He used to say tbat men were wrong for complaining of 
fortune; for that they ask of the G-ods what appear to be 
good things, not what are really so. And to those who were 
alarmed at dreams he said, that they did not regard what they 
do while they are awake, but make a great fuss about what 
they fancy they see while they are asleep. Once, at the 
Olympic games, when the herald proclaimed, "Dioxippus is 
the conqueror of men;" he said, "He is the conqueror of 
slaves, I am the conqueror of men." 

He was greatly beloved by the Athenians ; accordingly, 
when a youth had broken his cask they beat him, and gave 
Diogenes another. And Dionysius, the Stoic, says that after 
the battle of Chsgronea he was taken prisoner and brought to 
Philip ; and being asked who he was, replied, " A spy, to 
spy upon your insatiability." And Philip marvelled at him 
and let him go.* Once, when Alexander had sent a letter to 
Athens to Antipater, by the hands of a man named Athlias, 
he, being present, said, " Athlias from Athlius, by means of 
Athlias to Athlius.* When Perdiccas threatened that he 
would put him to death if he did not come to him, he replied, 
" That is nothing strange, for a scorpion or a tarantula could 
do as much : you had better threaten me that, if I kept away, 
you should be very happy." He used constantly to repeat 
with emphasis, that " An easy life had been given to man by 
the Gods, but that it had been overlaid by their seeking for 
honey, cheese-cakes, and unguents, and things of that sort." 
On which account he said to a man, who had his shoes put on 
by his servant, " You are not thoroughly happy, unless he 

* There i8 a pun upon the similarity of Athlias's name to the Greek adjective 
athlios, which signifies miserable. 



DIOGENES. 143 

also wipes your nose for you ; and he will do this, if you are 
crippled in your hands." On one occasion, when he had seen 
the hieromnemones* leading off one of the stewards who had 
stolen a goblet, he said, " The great thieves are carrying off 
the little thief." At another time, seeing a young man throw- 
ing stones at a cross, he said, " Well done, you will be sure to 
reach the mark." Once, too, some boys got round him and 
said, " We are taking care that you do not bite us ;" but he 
said, " Be of good cheer, my boys, a dog does not eat beef." 
He saw a man giving himself airs because he was clad in a 
lion's skin, and said to him, " Do not go on disgracing the 
garb of nature." When people were speaking of the happi- 
ness of Calisthenes, and saying what splendid treatment he 
received from Alexander, he replied, "The man then is 
wretched, for he is forced to breakfast and dine whenever 
Alexander chooses." When he was in want of money, he 
said that he reclaimed it from his friends and did not beg 
for it. 

On one occasion he was working with his hands in the 
market-place, and said, " I wish I could rub my stomach in 
the same way, and so avoid hunger." When he saw a young 
man going with some satraps to supper, he dragged him away 
and led him off to his relations, and bade them take care of 
him. He was once addressed by a youth beautifully adorned, 
who asked him some question ; and he refused to give him 
any answer, till he satisfied him whether he was a man or a 
woman. And on one occasion, when a youth was playing the 
cottabus in the bath, he said to him, " The better you do it, 
the worse you do it." Once at a banquet, some of the guests 
threw him bones, as if he had been a dog ; so he, as he went 
away, put up his leg against them as if he had been dog in 
reality. He used to call the orators, and all those who speak 
for fame, thrice men, instead of thrice miserable. He said 

* The hieromnemones were the sacred secretaries or recorders sent by each 
Amphictyonic state to the council along with their actual deputy or minister. 



144 DIOGENES. 

that " A rich but ignorant man, was like a sheep with a 
golden fleece." When he saw a notice on the house of a 
profligate man, " To be sold." " I knew," said he, " that you 
who are so incessantly drunk, would soon vomit up your 
owner." To a young man, who was complaining of the num- 
ber of people who sought his acquaintance, he said, " Do not 
make such a parade of your vanity." 

Having been in a very dirty bath, he said, " I wonder where 
the people, who bathe here, clean themselves." When all the 
company was blaming an indifferent harp-player, he alone 
praised him, and being asked why he did so, he said, " Be- 
cause, though he is such as he is, he plays the harp and does 
not steal." He saluted a harp-player who was always left 
alone by his hearers, with " Good morning, cock ;" and when 
the man asked him, " Why so ?" he said, " Because you, when 
you sing, make every one get up." When a young man was 
one day making a display of himself, he, having filled the 
bosom of his robe with lupins, began to eat them ; and when 
the multitude looked at him, he said, " that he marvelled at 
their leaving the young man to look at him." And when a 
man, who was very superstitious, said to him, " With one 
blow I will break your head." " And I," he replied, " with 
one sneeze will make you tremble." When Hegesias entreat- 
ed him to lend him one of his books, he said, " You are a silly 
fellow, Hegesias, for you will not take painted figs, but real 
ones ; and yet you overlook the genuine practice of virtue, 
and seek for what is merely written." A man once reproached 
him with his banishment, and his answer was, " You wretched 
man, that is what made me a philosopher." And when on 
another occasion, some one said to him, " The people of 
Sinope condemned you to banishment," he replied, " And I 
condemned them to remain where they were." Once he saw 
a man who had been a victor at the Olympic games, feeding 
sheep, and he said to him, " You have soon come across my 
friend from the Olympic games, to the Nemean." When he 



DIOGENES. 145 

• 

was asked why athletes are insensible to pain, he said, " Be- 
cause they are built up of pork and beef." 

He once asked for a statue ; and being questioned as to his 
reason for doing so, he said, " I am practising disappointment." 
Once he was begging of some one (for he did this at first out 
of actual want), he said, u If you have given to any one else, 
give also to me ; and if you have never given to any one, then 
begin with me." On one occasion, he was asked by the 
tyrant, " What sort of brass was the best for a statue ?" and 
he replied, "That of which the statues of Harmodius and 
Aristogiton are made." When he was asked how Dionysius 
treats his friends, he said, "Like bags; those which are full 
he hangs up, and those which are empty he throws away." 
A man who was lately married put an inscription on his 
house, "Hercules Callinicus, the son of Jupiter, lives here; 
let no evil enter." And so Diogenes wrote in addition, " An 
alliance is made after the war is over." He used to say that 
covetousness was the metropolis of all evils. Seeing on one 
occasion a profligate man in an inn eating olives, he said, " If 
you had dined thus, you would not have supped thus." One 
of his apophthegms was, that good men were the images of 
the Gods ; another, that love was the business of those who 
had nothing to do. When he was asked what was miserable 
in life, he answered, " An indigent old man." And when 
the question was put to him, what beast inflicts the worst 
bite, he said, " Of wild beasts the sycophant, and of tame ani- 
mals the flatterer." 

On one occasion he saw two Centaurs very badly painted ; 
he said, " Which of the two is the worst ?"* He used to say 
that a speech, the object of which was solely to please, was a 
honeyed halter. He called the belly, the Charybdis of life. 
Having heard once that Didymon the adulturer, had been 
caught in the fact, he said, " He deserves to be hung by his 

* Chiron was also the most celebrated of the Centaurs, the tutor of Achilles. 

13 



146 DIOGENES. 

name."* When the question was put to him, why is gold of 
a pale color, he said, " Because it has so many people plotting 
against it." When he saw a woman in a litter, he said, " The 
cage is not suited to the animal." And seeing a runaway 
slave sitting on a well, he said, " My boy, take care you do 
not fall in." Another time, he saw a little boy who was a 
stealer of clothes from the baths, and said, " Are yon going 
for unguents, or for other garments." Seeing some women 
hanging on some olive trees, he said, " I wish every tree bore 
similar fruit." At another time, he saw a clothes' stealer, and 
addressed him thus : — 

What moves thee, say, when sleep has clos'd the sight, 
To roam the silent fields in dead of night ? 
Art thou some wretch by hopes of plunder led, 
Through heaps of coinage to despoil the dead.+ 

When he was asked whether he had any girl or boy to wait 
on him, he said, " No." And as his questioner asked further, 
"If then you die, who will bury you?" He replied, " Who- 
ever wants my house." Seeing a handsome youth sleeping 
without any protection, he nudged him, and said, "Wake 

Mix'd with the vulgar shall thy fate be found, 
Pierc'd in the back, a vile dishonest wound.":}: 

And he addressed a man who was buying delicacies at a 
great expense : — 

Not long, my son, will you on earth remain, 
If such your dealings.§ 

When Plato was discoursing about his " ideas," and using 
the nouns "tableness" and "cupness;" "I, O Plato!" inter- 
rupted Diogenes, " see a table and a cup, but I see no table- 
ness or cupness." Plato made answer, "That is natural 

* There is a pun intended here. 

t This is taken from Homer, II. Pope's Version, 455. 
i This is also from Homer, II. Pope's Version, 120. 
§ This is a parody on Homer. 



DIOGENES. 147 

enough, for 3 7 ou have eyes, by which a cup and a table are 
contemplated ; but you have not intellect, by which tableness 
and cupness are seen." 

On one occasion, he was asked by a certain person, " "What 
sort of a man, O Diogenes, do you think Socrates ?" and he 
said, " A madman." Another time, the question was put to 
him, when a man ought to marry? And his reply was, 
"Young men ought not to marry yet, and old men never 
ought to marry at all." When asked what he would take to 
let a man give him a blow on the head, he replied, " A hel- 
met." Seeing a youth smartening himself up very carefully, 
he said to him, " If you are doing that for men, you are mis- 
erable ; and if for women, you are profligate." Once he saw 
a youth blushing, and addressed him, " Courage, my boy, that 
is the complexion of virtue." Having once listened to two 
lawyers, he condemned them both, saying, " That the one had 
stolen the thing in question, and that the other had not lost 
it." When asked what wine he liked to drink, he said, " That 
which belongs to another." A man said to him one day, 
"Many people laugh at you." " But I," he replied, " am not 
laughed down." When a man said to him, that it was a bad 
thing to live; " Not to live," said he, "but to live badly." 
When some people were advising him to make search for a 
slave who had run away, he said, " It would be a very absurd 
thing for Manes to be able to live without Diogenes, but not 
for Diogenes to be able to live without Manes." When he 
was dining on olives, a cheese-cake was brought in, on which 
he threw the olive away, saying : — 

Keep well aloof, O stranger, from all tyrants.* 

And presently he added : — 

He drove the olive off.f 

• This is a line of the Phcenissae of Euripides, v. 40. 

t The pun here is on the similarity of the noun elaan^ an olive, to the verb 
elaan, to drive. 



148 DIOGENES, 

When he was asked what sort of a dog he was, he replied, 
" When hungry, I am a dog of Melita ; when satisfied, a Mo- 
lossian; a sort which most of those who praise do not like to 
take out hunting with them, because of the labor of keeping 
up with them ; and in like manner, you cannot associate with 
me, from fear of the pain I give you." The question was put 
to him, whether wise men ate cheese-cakes, and he replied, 
" They eat everything, just as the rest of mankind." When 
asked why people give to beggars and not to philosophers, he 
said, "Because they think it possible that they themselves 
may become lame and blind, but they do not expect ever to 
turn out philosophers." He once begged of a covetous man, 
and as he was slow to give, he said, " Man, I am asking you 
for something to maintain me, and not to bury me." When 
some one reproached hira for having tampered with the coin- 
age, he said, " There was a time when I was such a person as 
you are now ; but there never was when you were such as I 
am now, and never will be." And to another person who 
reproached him on the same grounds, he said, " There were 
times when I did what I did not wish to, but that is not the 
case now." When he went to Myndus, he saw some very 
large gates, but the city was a small one, and so he said, " Oh 
men of Myndus, shut your gates, lest your city should steal 
out." On one occasion he saw a man who had been detected 
stealing purple, and so he said : — 

A purple death, and mighty fate o'ertook him.* 

When Oraterus entreated him to come and visit him, he 
said, " I would rather lick up salt at Athens, than enjoy a 
luxurious table with Oraterus." On one occasion, he met 
Anaximenes, the orator, who was a fat man, and thus accosted 
him : " Pray give us, who are poor, some of your belly ; for 
by so doing you will be relieved yourself, and you will assist 
us." And once, when he was discussing some point, Diogenes 

* This line occurs in Horn. Iliad. 



DIOGENES. 149 

held up a piece of salt-fish, and drew off the attention of his 
hearers ; and as Anaximenes was indignant at this, he said, 
" See, one pennyworth of salt-fish has put an end to the lec- 
ture of Anaximenes." Being once reproached for eating in 
the market-place, he made answer, "I did, for it was in the 
market-place that I was hungry." Some authors also attribute 
the following repartee to him : Plato saw him washing veg- 
etables, and so coming up to him, he quietly accosted him 
thus: "If you had paid court to Dionysius, you would not 
have been washing vegetables." "And," he replied with 
equal quietness, "if you had washed vegetables, you would 
never have paid court to Dionysius." When a man said 
to him once, "Most people laugh at you;" "And very 
likely," he replied, " the asses laugh at them ; but they do not 
regard the asses, neither do I regard them." Once he saw a 
youth studying philosophy, and said to him, " Well done ; in- 
asmuch as you are leading those who admire your person to 
contemplate the beauty of your mind." 

A certain person was admiring the offerings in the temple 
at Samothrace,* and he said to him, " They would have been 
much more numerous, if those who were lost had offered them 
instead of those who were saved ;" but some attribute this 
speech to Diagoras the Thelian. Once he saw a handsome 
youth going to a banquet, aud said to him, " You will come 
back worse (clieironf) ;" and when he the next day after the 
banquet said to him, "I have left the banquet, and was no 
worse for it ;" he replied, " You were not Chiron, but Eury- 
tion."t He was begging once of a very ill-tempered man, 
and as he said to him, " If you can persuade me, I will give 

* The Samothracian Gods were Gods of the sea, and it was customary for 
those who had been saved from shipwreck to make them an offering of some 
part of what they had saved ; and of their hair, if they had saved nothing but 
their lives. 

t Cheiron signifies worse, and was also a name of one of the Centaurs. 

% Eurytion was another of the Centaurs, who was killed by Hercules. 

13* 



150 DIOGENES. 

you something;" he replied, "If I could persuade you, I 
would beg you to hang yourself." He was on one occasion 
returning from Lacedsemon to Athens ; and when some one 
asked him, " Whither are you going, and whence do you 
come ?" he said, " I am going from the men's apartments to 
the women's." Another time he was returning from the 
Olympic games, and when some one asked him whether there 
had been a great multitude there, he said, " A great multitude, 
but very few men." He used to say that " Debauched men 
resembled figs growing on a precipice ; the fruit of which is 
not tasted by men, but devoured by crows and vultures." 
"When Phryne had dedicated a golden statue of Venus at 
Delphi, he wrote upon it, " From the profligacy of the Greeks." 

Once Alexander the Great came and stood by him, and 
said, " I am Alexander, the great king." " And I," said he, 
" am Diogenes the dog." And when he was asked to what 
actions of his it was owing that he was called a dog, he said, 
" Because I fawn upon those who give me anything, and bark 
at those who give me nothing, and bite the rogues." On one 
occasion he was gathering some of the fruit of a fig-tree, and 
when the man who was guarding it told him a man hung him- 
self on this tree the other day, " I, then," said he, " will now 
purify it." Once he saw a man who had been a conqueror at 
the Olympic games looking very often at a courtesan ; " Look," 
said he, " at that warlike ram, who is taken prisoner by the 
first girl he meets." One of his sayings was, that good-look- 
ing courtesans were like poisoned mead. 

On one occasion he was eating his dinner in the market- 
place, and the bystanders kept constantly calling out " Dog ;" 
but he said, " It is you who are the dogs, who stand around 
me while I am at dinner." When two effeminate fellows were 
getting out of his way, he said, " Do not be afraid, a dog does 
not eat beetroot." Being once asked about a debauched boy, 
as to what country he came from, he said, " He is a Tegean."* 

* This is a pun on the similarity of the sound, Tegea, to tegos, a brothel. 



DIOGENES. 151 

Seeing an unskilful wrestler professing to heal a man he said, 
u What are you about, are you in hopes now to overthrow 
those who formerly conquered you?' 7 On one occasion he 
saw the son of a courtesan throwing a stone at a crowd, and 
said to him, " Take care, lest you hit your father." When a 
boy showed him a sword that he had received from one to 
whom he had done some discreditable service, he told him, 
" The sword is a good sword, but the handle is infamous." 
And when some people were praising a man who had given 
him something, he said to them,." And do not you praise me 
who was worthy to receive it?" He was asked by some one 
to give him back his cloak ; but he replied, " If you gave it 
me, it is mine ; and if you only lent it me, I am using it." A 
supposititious son of somebody once said to him, that he had 
gold in his cloak ; " Ho doubt," said he, " that is the very 
reason why I sleep with it under my head." When he was 
asked what advantage he had derived from philosophy, he re- 
plied, " If no other, at least this, that I am prepared for every 
kind of fortune." The question was put to him what country- 
man he was, and he replied, " A Citizen of the world." Some 
men were sacrificing to the Gods to prevail on them to send 
them sons, and he said, " And do you not sacrifice to procure 
sons of a particular character?" Once he was asking the 
president of a society for a contribution, and said to him : — 

" Spoil all the rest but keep your hands from Hector." 

He used to say that courtesans were the queens of kings ; 
for that they asked them for whatever. they chose. When 
the Athenians had voted that Alexander was Bacchus, he 
said to them, " Vote, too, that I am Serapis." When a man 
reproached him for going into unclean places, he said, " The 
sun, too, penetrates into privies, but is not polluted by them." 
When supping in a temple, as some dirty loaves were set be- 
fore him, he took them up and threw them away, saying that 
nothing dirty ought to come into a temple ; and when some 



152 DIOGENES. 

one said to him, " You philosophize without being possessed 
of any knowledge ;" he said, " If I only pretend to wisdom, 
that is philosophizing." A man once brought him a boy, and 
said that he was a very clever child, and one of an admirable 
disposition. "What, then," said Diogenes, u does he want 
of me." He used to say that those who utter virtuous senti- 
ments, but do not do them, are no better than harps, for that 
a harp has no hearing or feeling. Once when he saw a 
young man putting on effeminate airs, he said to him, " Are 
you not ashamed to have vvprse plans for yourself than nature 
had for you? For she has made you a man, but you are 
trying to force yourself to be a woman." When he saw an 
ignorant man tuning a psaltery, he said to him, "Are you not 
ashamed to be arranging proper sounds on a wooden instru- 
ment, and not arranging your soul to a proper life ?" When 
a man said to him, " I am not calculated for philosophy," he 
said, " Why then do you live, if you have no desire to live 
properly ?" To a man who treated his father with contempt, 
he said, " Are you not ashamed to despise him to whom you 
owe it that you have it in your power to give yourself airs 
at all ?" Seeing a handsome young man chattering in an un- 
seemly manner, he said, "Are you not ashamed to draw a 
sWord cut of lead out of a scabbard of ivory ?" Being once 
reproached for drinking in a vintner's shop, he said, " I have 
my hair cut, too, in a barber's." At another time he was 
attacked for having accepted a cloak from Autipater, but he 
replied : — 

" Refuse not thou to heed 
The gifts which from the mighty Gods proceed."* 

A man once struck him with a broom, and said, " Take 
care ;" so he struck him in return with his staff, and said, 
" Take care." 

He once said to a man who was addressing anxious en- 
treaties to a courtesan, " What can you wish to obtain, you 
* Horn. Iliad. 



DIOGENES. 153 

wretched man, that you had not better be disappointed in?" 
Seeing a man reeking all over with unguents, he said to him, 
u Have a care, lest the fragrance of your head give a bad 
odor to your life." One of his sayings was, that servants 
serve their masters, and that wicked men are the slaves of 
their appetites. Being asked why slaves were called andro- 
poda (men-footed), he replied, " Because they have the feet of 
men (podas androri), and a soul such as you who are asking 
this question." He once asked a profligate fellow for a raina; 
and when he put the question to him, why he asked others 
for an obol and him for a mina, he said, " Because I hope to 
get something from the others another time, but the Gods 
alone know whether I shall ever extract anything from you 
again." Once he was reproached for asking favors, while 
Plato never asked for any ; and he said : — 

" He asks as well as I do, but he does it 
Bending his head, that no one else may hear." 

One day he saw an unskilful archer, shooting ; so he went 
and sat down by the target, saying, " >Tow I shall be out of 
harm's way." He used to say that those who were in love, 
were disappointed in regard of the pleasure they expected. 
"When he was asked whether death was an evil, he replied, 
" How can that be an evil which we do not feel when it is 
present ?" When Alexander was once standing by him, and 
saying, " Do not you fear me ?" He replied, " No ; for what 
are you, a good or an evil ?" And as he said that he was 
good. " Who, then," said Diogenes, " fears the good ?" He 
used to say that education was, for the young, sobriety ; for 
the old, comfort ; for the poor, riches ; and for the rich, an 
ornament. When Didyrnus, the adulterer, was once trying to 
cure the eye of a young girl (Jcores), he said, " Take care, lest 
when you are curing the eye of the maiden, you do not hurt 
the pupil."* A man once said to him, that his friends laid 

* There is a pun here ; kore means both " a girl " and " the pupil of the eye." 
And phtheiro, " to destroy," is also especially used for " to seduce." 



154 DIOGENES. 

plots against him ; " What, then," said he, " are you to do, 
if you must look upon both your friends and enemies in the 
same light ?" 

On one occasion he was asked, what was the most excellent 
thing among men ; and he said, "Freedom of speech." He 
went once into a school, and saw many statues of the Muses, 
but very few pupils, and said, " Gods, and all my good school- 
master, you have plenty of pupils." He was in the habit of 
doing everything in public, whether in respect of Venus or 
Ceres ; and he used to put his conclusions in this way to peo- 
ple : " If there is nothing absurd in dining, then it is not ab- 
surd to dine in the market-place. But it is not absurd to dine, 
therefore it is not absurd to dine in the market-place." And 
as he was continually doing manual work in public, he said 
one day, " Would that by rubbing my belly I could get rid of 
hunger." Other sayings also are attributed to him, which it 
would take a long time to enumerate, there is such a multipli- 
city of them. 

He used to say, that there were two kinds of exercise ; that, 
namely, of the mind and that of the body; and that the lat- 
ter of these created in the mind such quick and agile phanta- 
sies at the time of its performance, as very much facilitated the 
practice of virtue ; but that one was imperfect without the 
other, since the health and vigor necessary for the practice 
of what is good, depend equally on both mind and body. And 
he used to allege as proofs of this, and of the ease which prac- 
tice imparts to acts of virtue, that people could see that in the 
case of mere common working trades, and other employments 
of that kind, the artisans arrived at no inconsiderable accuracy 
by constant practice ; and that any one may see how much 
one flute player, or one wrestler, is superior to another, by his 
own continued practice. And that if these men transferred 
the same training to their minds they would not labor in a 
profitless or imperfect manner. He used to say also, that there 
was nothing whatever in life which could be brought to per- 



DIOGENES. 155 

fection without practice, and that that alone "was able to over- 
come every obstacle ; that, therefore, as we ought to repudiate 
all useless toils, and to apply ourselves to useful labors, and 
to live happily, Ave are only unhappy in consequence of most 
exceeding folly. For the very contempt of pleasure, if we 
only inure ourselves to it, is very pleasant ; and just as they 
who are accustomed to live luxuriously, are brought very 
unwillingly to adopt the contrary system ; so they who have 
been originally inured to that opposite system, feel a sort of 
pleasure in the contempt of pleasure. 

This used to be the language which he held, and he used to 
show in practice, really altering men's habits, and deferring in 
all things rather to the principles of nature than to those of 
law. He also argued about the law, that without it there is 
no possibility of a constitution being maintained ; for without 
a city there can be nothing orderly, but a city is an orderly 
thing ; and without a city there can be no law ; therefore law 
is order. And he played in the same manner with the topics 
of noble birth, and reputation, and all things of that kind, 
saying that they were all veils, as it were, for wickedness; and 
that that was the only proper constitution which consisted in 
order. And he said, that all people's sons ought to belong to 
every one in common ; and there was nothing intolerable in 
the idea of taking anything out of a temple, or eating any animal 
whatever, and that there was no impiety in tasting even 
human flesh ; as is plain from the habits of foreign nations ; 
and he said that this principle might be correctly extended 
to every case and every people. For he said that in real- 
ity, everything was a combination of all things. For that 
in bread there was meat, and in vegetables there was 
bread, and so there were some particles of all other bodies 
in everything communicating by invisible passages and evap- 
orating. 

And he bore being sold with a most magnanimous spirit. 
For as he was sailing to ^Egina, and was taken prisoner by 



156 DIOGENES. 

some pirates, under the command of Scirpalns, he was carried 
off to Crete and sold ; and when the Circe asked him what 
art he understood, he said, " That of governing men." And 
presently pointing out a Corinthian, very carefully dressed, 
(the same Xeniades whom we have mentioned before,) he 
said, " Sell me to that man ; for he wants a master." Accord- 
ingly Xeniades bought him and carried him away to Corinth ; 
and then he made him tutor of his sons, and committed to 
him the entire management of his house. And he behaved 
himself in every affair in such a manner, that Xeniades, when 
looking over his property, said, " A good genius has come 
into my house." And Cleomenes, in his book which is called 
the Schoolmaster, says, that he wished to ransom all his rela- 
tions, but that Diogenes told him they were all fools ; for that 
lions did not become the slaves of those who kept them, but, 
on the contrary, those who maintained lions were their slaves. 
.For that it was the part of a slave to fear, but that wild beasts 
were formidable to men. 

And the man had the gift of persuasion in a wonderful de- 
gree ; so that he could easily overcome any one' by his argu- 
ments. Accordingly, it is said that an JSginetan of the name 
of Onesicritus, having two sons, sent to Athens one of them, 
whose name was Androsthenes, and that he, after having 
heard Diogenes lecture, remained there ; and that after that, 
he sent the elder, Philiscus, who has been already mentioned, 
and that Philiscus was charmed in the same manner. And 
last of all, he came himself, and then he too remained no less 
than his son, studying philosophy at the feet of Diogenes. So 
great a charm was there in the discourses of Diogenes. An- 
other pupil of his was Phocion, who was surnamed the Good ; 
and Stilpon, the Megarian, and a great many other men of 
eminence as statesmen. 

He is said to have died when he was nearly ninety years of 
age, but there are different accounts given of his death. Tor 
some say that he ate an ox's foot raw, and was in consequence 



DIOGENES. 157 

seized with a bilious attack, of which he died ; others, of 
whom Cercidas, a Ivfegalopolitan or Cretan, is one, say that he 
died of holding his breath for several days ; and Oeroidas 
speaks thus of him in his Meliambics : — 

He, that Sinopian who bore the stick, 
Wore his cloak doubled, and in th' open air 
Dined without washing, would not bear with life 
A moment longer : but he shut his teeth, 
And held his breath. He truly was the son 
Of Jove, and a most heavenly- minded dog, 
The wise Diogenes. 

Others say that he, while intending to distribute a polypus to 
his dogs, was bitten by them through the tendon of his foot, 
and so died. But his own greatest friends, as Antisthenes 
tells us in his Successions, rather sanction the story of his 
having died from holding his breath. For he used to live in 
the Oraneum, which was a Gymnasium at the gates of Corinth. 
And his friends came according to their custom, and found 
him with his head covered ; and as they did not suppose that 
he was asleep, for he was not a man much subject to the in- 
fluence of night or sleep, they drew away his cloak from his 
face, and found him no longer breathing ; and they thought 
that he had done this on purpose, wishing to escape the re- 
maining portion of his life. 

On this there was a quarrel, as they say, between his friends, 
as to who should bury him, and they even came to blows ; but 
when the elders and chief men of the city came there, they 
say that he was buried by them at the gate which leads to 
the Isthmus. And they placed over him a pillar, and on that 
a dog in Parian marble. And at a later period his fellow- 
citizens honored him with brazen statues, and put this inscrip- 
tion on them : — 

E'en brass by lapse of time doth old become, 
But there is no such time as shall efface, 
Your lasting glory, wise Diogenes ; 

14 



158 diaotOras. 

Since you alone did teach to men tlie art 
Of a contented life ; the surest path 
To glory and a lasting happiness. 

Some, however, say that when he was dying, he ordered 
his friends to throw his corpse away without burying it, so 
that every beast might tear it, or else to throw it into a ditch, 
and sprinkle a little dust over it. And others say that his 
injunctions were, that he should be thrown into the Ilissus ; 
that so he might be useful to his brethren. But Demetrius, 
in his treatise on Men of the Same Name, says that Diogenes 
died in Corinth the same day that Alexander died in Babylon. 
And he was already an old man, as early as the hundred and 
thirteenth Olympiad. 



DIOGENES, THE BABYLONIAN. 

Diogenes, of Seleucia, called also the Babylonian, from the 
vicinity of Babylon to his native place, applied himself so dil- 
igently to the study and propagation of the Stoic doctrine, 
that Cicero calls him a great and respectable Stoic. This was 
unquestionably the reason for which he was sent with Car- 
neades and Critolaus on the celebrated embassy from Athens 
to Kome. Seneca relates, that as he was one day discoursing 
upon anger, "a foolish youth, in hope of raising a laugh against 
the philosopher by making him angry, spit in his face ; upon 
which Diogenes meekly and prudently said, U I am not angry, 
but I am in doubt whether I ought not to be so." He lived 
to the age of eighty- eight years. 



DIAGrORAS. 

Diagokas was a native of the island of Melos. He was 
sold as a captive in his youth, but was afterwards redeemed 



DIAGORAS. 159 

by Democritus, and trained up to the study of philosophy. 
He also cultivated polite learning, and distinguished himself 
in the art of poetry. His name, however, has been transmit- 
ted to posterity with infamy, in consequence of his atheistical 
principles. It is positively asserted that on one occasion, 
when he saw a perjured person escape punishment, he pub- 
licly avowed his disbelief of Divine Providence, and from that 
time spoke of the Gods, and of all religious ceremonies, with 
ridicule and contempt. He even attempted to lay open the 
sacred mysteries, and to dissuade the people from submitting 
to the rites of initiation. These public insults offered to re- 
ligion brought upon him the general hatred of the Athenians ; 
who, upon his refusing to obey a summons to appear in the 
courts of judicature, issued forth a decree, which was inscribed 
upon a brazen column, offering the reward of a talent to any 
one who should kill him, or two talents to any one who 
should bring him alive before the judges. This happened in 
the ninety-first Olympiad. From that time Diagoras became 
a fugitive in Attica, and at last fled to Corinth, where he died. 
It is said, that being on board a ship during a storm, the ter- 
rified sailors began to accuse themselves for having received 
into their ship a man so infamous for his impiety ; upon 
which Diagoras pointed out to them other vessels, which 
were near them on the sea in equal danger, and asked them, 
whether they thought that each of these ships also carried a 
Diagoras ; and that afterwards, when a friend, in order to 
convince him that the Gods are not indifferent to human affairs, 
desired him to observe how many consecrated tablets were 
hung up in the temples in grateful acknowledgment of the 
escapes from the dangers of the sea, he said in reply, " True ; 
but here are no tablets of those who have suffered shipwreck, 
and perished in the sea.*' But there is reason to suspect that 
these tales are mere inventions ; for similar stories have been 
told of Diogenes, the Cynic, and others. 



160 



EDDIN SADI. 



EDDIN SADI 



- Eddin Sadi, a Persian, about the middle of the thirteenth 
century, when the Turks invaded Persia, withdrew from his 
own country, and settled at Bagdat, for the purpose of pros- 
ecuting his studies. After experiencing much vicissitude of 
fortune, he returned home, and compiled a beautiful com- 
pendium of Oriental ethics, under the title of the Persian 
Rosary, which he completed in the year 1257. This work has 
been universally read in the East, and has been translated 
into Latin, and into several modern languages. From this 
Rosary, which is divided into eight chapters, we shall cull a 
few of the choicest flowers. 

1. Paradise will be the reward of those kings who restrain 
their resentment, and know how to forgive. A king who 
institutes unjust laws, undermines the foundation of his king- 
dom. Let him who neglects to raise the fallen, fear lest, when 
he himself falls, no one will stretch out his hand to lift him 
up. Administer justice to your people, for a day of judg- 
ment is at hand. The dishonest steward's hand will shake, 
when he comes to render an account of his trust. Be just, 
and fear not. Oppress not thy subjects, lest the sighing of 
the oppressed should ascend to heaven. If you wish to be 
great, be liberal ; for unless you sow the seed, there can be no 
increase. Assist and relieve the wretched, for misfortunes 
may happen to yourself. "Wound no man unnecessarily; 
there are thorns enough in the path of human life. If a king 
take an apple from the garden of a subject, his servants will 
soon cut down the tree. The flock is not made for the shep- 
herd, but the shepherd for the flock. 

2. Excel in good works, and wear what you please ; inno- 
cence and piety do not consist in wearing an old or coarse 
garment. Learn virtue from the vicious ; and what offends 
you in their conduct, avoid in your own. If you have received 



EDDIN SADI. 161 

an injury, bear it patiently ; by pardoning the offences of 
others, you will wash away your own. Him, who has been, 
every day conferring upon you new favors, pardon, if, in the 
space of a long life, he should have once done you an injury. 
Eespect the memory of the good, that your good name may 
live forever. 

3. In your adversity, do not visit your friend with a sad 
countenance ; for you will embitter his cup : relate even your 
misfortunes with a smile ; for wretchedness will never reach 
the heart of a cheerful man. He who lives upon the fruits 
of his own labor, escapes the contempt of haughty benefac- 
tors. Always encounter petulance with gentleness, and 
perverseness with kindness : a gentle hand will lead the ele- 
phant itself by a hair. When once you have offended a man, 
do not presume that a hundred benefits will secure you from 
revenge : an arrow may be drawn out of a wound, but an 
injury is never forgotten. Worse than the venom of a ser- 
pent, is the tongue of an enemy who pretends to be your friend. 

4. It is better to be silent on points we understand, than to 
be put to shame by being questioned upon things of which 
we are ignorant. A wise man will not contend with a fool. 
It is a certain mark of folly, as well as rudeness, to speak 
whilst another "is speaking. If you are wise, you will speak 
less than you know. 

5. Although you can repeat every word of the Koran, if 
you suffer yourself to be enslaved by love, you have not yet 
learned your alphabet. The immature grape is sour ; wait a 
few days, and it will become sweet. If you resist temptation, 
do not assure yourself that you shall escape slander. The 
reputation which has been fifty years in building, may be 
thrown down by one blast of calumny. Listen not to the tale 
of friendship from the man who has been capable of forgetting 
his friends in adversity. 

6. Perseverance accomplishes more than precipitation : the 
patient mule, which travels slowly night and day, will in the 

14* 



162 EDDIN SADI. 

end go further than an Arabian courser. If you are old, 
leave sports and jests to the young : the stream which has 
passed away, will not return into its channel. 

7. Instruction is only profitable to those who are capable 
of receiving it : bring an ass to Mecca, and it will still return 
an ass. If you would be your father's heir, learn his wisdom : 
bis wealth you may expend in ten days. He who is tinctured 
with good principles while he is young, when he is grown old 
will not be destitute of virtue. If a man be destitute of 
knowledge, prudence, and virtue, his door-keeper may say, 
Nobody is at home. Give advice where you ought ; if it be 
not regarded, the fault is not yours. 

8. Two kinds of men labor in vain : they who get riches, 
and do not enjoy them ; and they who learn wisdom, and do 
not apply it to the conduct of life. A wise man who is not 
at the same time virtuous, is a blind man carrying a lamp : he 
gives light to others, whilst he himself remains in darkness. 
If you wish to sleep soundly, provide for to-morrow. Trust 
no man, not even your best friend, with a secret : you will 
never find a more faithful guardian of the trust than yourself. 
Let your misfortunes teach you compassion : he knows the 
condition of the wretched, who has himself been wretched. 
Excessive vehemence creates enmity ; excessive gentleness, 
contempt : be neither so severe as to be hated, nor so mild as 
to be insulted. He who throws away advice upon a conceit- 
ed man, himself wants an adviser. In a single hour you may 
discover whether a man has good sense; but it will require 
many years to discover whether he has good temper. Three 
things are unattainable : riches without trouble, science with- 
out controversy, and government without punishment. Clem- 
ency to the wicked is an injury to the good. If learning 
were banished from the earth, there would, notwithstanding, 
be no one who would think himself ignorant. 

The whole work from which these specimens are selected 
is an elegant specimen of Arabian morals. 



EMPEDOCLES. 163 



EMPEDOCLES. 

Empedocles was a citizen of Agrigentum. He was a pupil 
of Pythagoras, saying that he was afterwards convicted of 
having divulged his doctrines, in the same way as Plato was, 
and therefore that he was forbidden from thenceforth to at- 
tend his school. And they say that Pythagoras himself men- 
tions him when he says : — 

And in that band there was a learned man, 
Of wondrous wisdom ; one, who of all men 
Had the profoundest wealth of intellect. 

But some say that when the philosopher says this, he is refer- 
ring to Parmenides. 

Satyrus says that he practiced magic, and that he professes 
a knowledge of this art in the following lines : — 

And all the drug3 which can relieve disease, 
Or soften the approach of age, shall be 
Revealed to your inquiries ; I do know them, 
And I to you alone will them disclose. 
You shall restrain the fierce unbridled winds, 
Which, rushing o'er the earth, bow down the corn, 
And crush the farmer's hopes. And when you will, 
You shall recall them back to sweep the land : 
Then you shall learn to dry the rainy clouds, 
And bid warm summer cheer the heart of men. 
Again, at your behest, the draught shall yield 
To wholesome show'rs : when you give the word 
Hell shall restore its dead. 

And Thnseus, in his eighteenth book, says, that this man 
was held in great esteem on many accounts ; for that once, 
when the Etesian gales were blowing violently, so as to injure 
the crops, he ordered some asses to be flayed, and some blad- 
ders to be made of their hides, and these he placed on the 
hills and high places to catch the wind. And so, when the 
wind ceased, he was called wind-forbidder. 

It is also said that he kept the corpse of a dead woman free 



164 EMPEDOCLES. 

from corruption thirty days, on which account he professed 
to be a physician and a prophet. Empedocles, seeing the 
people immersed in luxury, said, " The men of Agrigentum 
devote themselves wholly to luxury as if they were to die to- 
morrow, but they furnish their houses as if they were to live 
forever." 

And Aristotle says, that he was a most liberal man, and far 
removed from anything like a domineering spirit ; since he 
constantly refused the sovereign power when it was offered to 
him, as Xanthus assures us in his account of him, showing 
plainly that he preferred a simple style of living. And 
Timaeus tells the same story, giving at the same time the 
reason why lie was so very popular. For he says that when on 
one occasion, he was invited to a banquet by one of the mag- 
istrates, the wine was carried about, but the supper was not 
served up. And as every one else kept silence, he, disapprov- 
ing of what he saw, bade the servants bring in the supper ; 
but the person who had invited him said that he was waiting 
for the secretary of the council. And when he came he was 
appointed master of the feast, at the instigation of the giver 
of it, and then he gave a plain intimation of his tyrannical in- 
clinations, for he ordered all the guests to drink, and those 
who did not drink were to have the wine ^poured over their 
heads. Empedocles said nothing at the moment, but the next 
day he summoned them before the court, and procured the 
execution of both the entertainer and the master of the feast. 

And this was the beginning of his political career. But 
there are two accounts of the manner of his death. 

For Heraclides, relating the story about the dead woman, 
how Empedocles got great glory from sending away a dead 
woman restored to life, says that he celebrated a sacrifice in 
the field of Pisianax, and that some of his friends were invited, 
among whom was Pausanias. And then, after the banquet, 
they lay down, some going a little way off, and some lying 
under the trees close by in the field, and some wherever they 



EMPEDOCLES. 165 

happened to choose. But Enipedocles himself remained in the 
place where he had been sitting. But when day broke, and 
they arose, he alone was not found. And when he was sought 
for, and the servants were examined and said that they did not 
know, one of them said, that at midnight he had heard a loud 
voice calling Empedocles ; and that then he himself rose up 
"and saw a great light from heaven, but nothing else. And as 
they were all amazed at what had taken place, Pausanias de- 
scended and sent some people to look for him ; but afterwards 
he was commanded not to busy himself about the matter, as 
he was informed that what had happened was deserving of 
thankfulness, and that they behoved a sacrifice to Empedocles 
as to one who had become a God. 

Hermippus says also, that a woman of the name of Panthea, 
a native of Agrigentum, who had been given over by the phy- 
sicians, was cured by him, and that it was on this account that 
he celebrated a sacrifice; and that the guests invited were 
about eighty in number. But Hippobotus says that he rose up 
and went away as if he were going to mount iEtna ; and that 
when he arrived at the crater of fire he leaped in, and disap- 
peared, wishing to establish a belief that he had become a 
God. But afterwards the truth was detected by one of his 
slippers having been dropped, For he used to wear slippers 
with brazen soles. Pausanias, however, contradicts this state- 
ment. 

But Diodorus, of Ephesus, writing about Anaximander, says 
that Empedocles imitated him ; indulging in the tragic sort of 
pride, and wearing magnificent apparel. And when a pesti- 
lence attacked the people of Selinus, by reason of the bad 
smells arising from the adjacent river, so that the men died and 
the women bore dead children, Empedocles contrived a plan, 
and bought into the same channel two other rivers at his own 
expense ; and so, by mixing their waters with that of the 
other river, he sweetened the stream. And as the pestilence 
was removed in this way, when the people of Selinus were on 



166 



EMPEDO C L ES 



Em- 

pedocles appeared among them ; and they rising up, offered 
him adoration, and prayed to him as to a God. And he, wish- 
ing to confirm this idea which they had adopted of him, leap- 
ed into the fire. 

But Timseus contradicts all these stories ; sayiDg expressly, 
that he departed into Peloponnesus, and never returned at all, 
on which account the manner of his death is uncertain. And 
he especially denies the tale of Heraclides in his fourth book; 
for he says that Pisianax was a Syracusan, and had no field in 
the district of Agrigentum; but that Pausanias erected a 
monument in honor of his friend, since such a report had got 
about concerning him ; and, as be was a rich man, made it a 
statue and little chapel, as one might erect to a God. " How 
then," adds Timseus, " could he have leaped into a crater, of 
which, though they were in the neighborhood, he had never 
made any mention? He died then in Peloponnesus; and 
there is nothing extraordinary in there being no tomb of his 
to be seen ; for there are many other men who have no tomb 
visible." These are the words of Timseus; and he adds 
further, " But Heraclides is altogether a man fond of strange 
stories, and one who would assert that a man had fallen from 
the moon." 

Hippobotus says, that there was a clothed statue of Empe- 
docles which lay formerly in Agrigentum, but which was af- 
terwards placed in front of the Senate i'ouse of the Komans, 
divested of its clothing, as the Romans had carried it off and 
erected it there. And there are traces of some inscriptions or 
reliefs still discernible on it. 

Neanthes, of Cyzicus, who also wrote about the Pythago- 
reans, says, that when Meton was dead, the seeds of tyrannical 
power began to appear ; and that then Empedocles persuaded 
the Agrigentines to desist from their factious disputes, and to 
establish political equality. And besides, as there were many 
of the female citizens destitute of dowry, he portioned them 



EMPEDOCLES. 107 

out of his own private fortune. And relying on these actions 
of his, he assumed a purple robe and wore a golden circlet on 
his hand, as Phavorinus relates in the first book of his Com- 
mentaries. He also wore slippers with brazen soles, and a 
Delphian garland. His hair was let grow very long, and he 
had boys to follow him ; and he himself always preserved a 
solemn countenance, and a uniformly grave deportment. And 
he marched about in such style, that he seemed to all the 
citizens, who met him and who admired his deportment, to 
exhibit a sort of likeness to kingly power. And afterwards, it 
happened that as on the occasion of some festival he was going 
in a chariot to Messene, he was upset and broke his thigh ; 
and he was taken ill in consequence, and so died, at the age 
of seventy-seven. His tomb is in Megara. 

He flourished about the eighty-fourth Olympiad. Demetrius, 
of Trsezon, in his book against the Sophists, reports that as the 
lines of Homer say : — 

He now, self-murdered, from a beam depends, 
And his mad soul to blackest hell descends.* 

But in the letter of Telanges, which has been mentioned be- 
fore, it is said that he slipped down through old age, and fell 
into the sea, and so died. 

There is a jesting epigram of ours upon him, in our collec- 
tion of Poems in all Metres, which runs thus : — 

You too, Empedocles, essayed to purge 
Your body in the rapid flames, and drank 
The liquid fire from the restless crater ; 
I say not that you threw yourself at once 
Into the stream of ./Etna's fiery flood. 
But seeking to conceal yourself you fell, 
And so you met with unintended death. 

And another : — 

'Tis said the wise Empedocles did fall 
Out of his chariot, and so broke his thigh : 
But if he leapt into the flames of iEtna, 
How could his tomb be shown in Megara ? 

* This is slightly parodied from Homer. Od. xi. 278. Pope's Version, 337. 



168 EMPEDOCLES. 

In addition to the above account by D. Laertius, we insert 
the following from Brucker : 

After the death of his father Meto, who was a wealthy citi- 
zen of Agrigentum, Empedocles acquired great weight among 
his fellow-citizens by espousing the popular party and favor- 
ing democratic measures. He employed a large share of his 
paternal estate in giving dowries to young women, and marry- 
ing them to men of superior rank. His consequence in the 
state became at length so great, that he ventured to assume 
several of the distinctions of royalty, particularly a purple 
robe, a golden girdle, a Delphic crown, and a train of attend- 
ants, always retaining a grave and commanding aspect. He 
was a determined enemy to tyranny, and is said to have em- 
ployed his influence in establishing and defending the rights 
of his countrymen. 

The skill which Empedocles possessed in medicine and 
natural philosophy enabled him to perform many wonders, 
which he passed upon the superstitious and credulous multi- 
tude for miracles. He pretended to drive away noxious winds 
from his country, and hereby put a stop to epidemical diseases. 
He is said to have checked, by the power of music, the mad- 
ness of a young man, who was threatening his enemy with 
instant death ; to have cured Pantha, a woman of Agrigen- 
tum, whom all the physicians had declared incurable ; to have 
restored a woman to life, who had lain breathless for thirty 
days ; and to have done many other things equally astonish- 
ing, after the manner of Pythagoras ; on account of which 
he was an object of universal admiration, so that when he 
came to the Olympic games, the eyes of all the people were 
fixed upon him. 



EPICTETUS. 169 



EPICTETUS. 

An illustrious ornament of the Stoic school, who claims 
respectful attention, both for his wisdom and virtues, is Epic- 
tetus. This eminent philosopher was born at Hierapolis, in 
Phrygia, in a servile condition, and was sold as a slave to 
Epaphroditus, one of Nero's domestics. Ancient writers are 
agreed that Epictetus was lame, but differ with respect to the 
cause of his lameness. Suidas says that he lost one of his 
legs when he was young, in consequence of a defluxion ; Sim- 
plicius asserts that he was born lame; Celsus relates, that 
when his master, in order to torture him, bended his leg, Epic- 
tetus, without discovering any sign of fear, said to him, "You 
will break it ;" and when his tormentor had broken the leg, 
he only said, " Did I not tell you you would break it ?" Oth- 
ers ascribe his lameness to the heavy chains with which his 
master loaded him. 

Having at length, by some means which are not related, 
obtained his manumission, Epictetus retired to a small hut 
within the city of Rome, where, with nothing more than the 
bare necessaries of life, he devoted himself to the study of 
philosophy. Here he passed his days entirely alone, till his 
humanity led him to take the charge of a child, whom a friend 
of his had through poverty exposed, and to provide it with a 
nurse. Having furnished himself, by diligent study, with a 
competent knowledge of the principles of the Stoic philoso- 
phy, and having received instructions in rhetoric from Rufus, 
who is said to have been himself a bold and successful cor- 
rector of public manners, Epictetus, notwithstanding his pov- 
erty, became a popular moral preceptor. He was an acute 
and judicious observer of manners. His eloquence was sim- 
ple, majestic, nervous, and penetrating. His doctrine incul- 
cated the purest morals ; and his life was an admirable pat- 
tern of sobriety, magnanimity, and the most rigid virtue. 
15 



170 EPICURUS. 

Neither his humble station, nor his singular merit, could, 
however, screen Epictetus from the tyranny of the monster 
Domitian. "With the rest of the philosophers, he was banish- 
ed, under a mock decree of the senate, from Italy. But he 
bore his exile with, a degree of firmness worthy of a philoso- 
pher who called himself a citizen of the world, and could 
boast that, wherever he went, he carried his best treasures 
along with him. At Mcopolis, the place which he chose for 
his residence, he prosecuted his design of correcting vice and 
folly by the precepts of philosophy. "Wherever he could ob- 
tain an auditory, he discoursed concerning the true way of 
attaining contentment and happiness ; and the wisdom and 
eloquence of his discourses were so highly admired, that it be- 
came a common practice among the more studious of his 
hearers to commit them to writing. 

Epictetus flourished from the time of Nero to the latter end 
of the reign of Adrian ; but it is improbable, notwithstanding 
the assertion of Themistius and Suidas, that his life was pro- 
tracted to the reign of the Antonines ; for Aulus Gellius, who 
wrote in their time, speaks of Epictetus as lately dead, 
whereas, had he been living when that prince engaged pre- 
ceptors of different sects, it is not likely that he would have 
overlooked the first ornament of the Porch, or preferred his 
disciple, Junius Eusticus. The memory of Epictetus was so 
highly respected, that, according to Lucian, the earthen lamp 
by which he used to study was sold for three thousand 
drachms. His beautiful Moral Manual, or Enchiridion, and 
his " Dissertations," collected by Arrian, were drawn up from 
notes which his disciples took from his lips. 



EPICURUS 



Epicurus was an Athenian, and the son of Neocles. After 
the death of Alexander, when the Athenians were driven out 



EPICURUS. 171 

of Samo-s by Perdiccas, he went to Colophon, to his father. 
And when he had spent some time there, and collected some 
disciples, he again returned to Athens, in the time of Anaxi- 
crates, and for some time studied philosophy, mingliDg with 
the rest of the philosophers ; but, subsequently, he somehow 
or other established the school which was called after his 
name. And he used to say, that he began to study philoso- 
phy when he was fourteen years of age ; but Apollodorus, 
the Epicurean, in the first book of his account of the life of 
Epicurus says, that he came to the study of philosophy, hav- 
ing conceived a great contempt for the grammarians, because 
they could not explain to him the statements in Hesiod re- 
specting Chaos. 

Diotimus, the Stoic, was very hostile to him, and calum- 
niated him in a most bitter manner, publishing fifty obscene 
letters, and attributing them to Epicurus, and also giving him 
the credit of the letters, which generally go under the name 
of Chrysippus. And Posidonius, the Stoic, and Mcolaus, and 
Sotion, in the twelfth of these books, which are entitled the 
Kefutations of Diodes, of which there are altogether twenty- 
four volumes, and Dionysius, of Halicarnassus, have also at- 
tacked him with great severity ; for they say that he used to 
accompany his mother when she went about the small cot- 
tages, performing purifications, and that he used to read the 
formula, and that he used also to keep a school with his father 
at very low terms. Also, that he, as well as one of his 
brothers, was a most profligate man in his morals, and that he 
used to live with Leontium, the courtesan. Moreover, that he 
claimed the books of Democritus on Atoms, and that of Aris- 
tippus on Pleasure, as his own ; and that he was not a legiti- 
mate citizen ; and this last fact is asserted also by Timocrates, 
and by Herodotus, in his treatise on the Youth of Epicurus. 

They also say that he used to flatter Mithras, the steward 
of Lysimachus, in a disgraceful manner, calling him in his let- 
ters Paean, and King ; and also that he flattered Idomeneus, 



172 EPICURUS. 

and Herodotus, and Timocrates who had revealed all his secret 
practices, and that he flattered them on this very account. 
And in his letters to Leontium, he says, " O king Apollo, my 
dear Leontium, what transports of joy did I feel when I read 
your charming letter." And to Themista, the wife of Leon- 
tius, he writes, " I am ready and prepared, if you do not come 
to me, to roll myself to wherever you and Themista invite 
me." And he addresses Pythocles, a beautiful youth, thus, 
" I will sit quiet," says he, " awaiting your longed-for and 
god-like approach." And at another time, writing to The- 
mista, he says, " That he had determined to make his way 
with her." 

He also wrote to many other courtesans, and especially to 
Leontium, with whom Metrodorus also was in love. And in 
his treatise on the Chief Good, he writes thus, " For I do not 
know what I can consider good, if I put out of sight the 
pleasures which arise from favors, and those which are derived 
from amatory pleasures, and from music, and from the con- 
templation of beauty." And in his letter to Pythocles, he 
writes, "And, my dear boy, avoid all sorts of education." 

Epictetus also attacks him as a most debauched man, and 
reproaches him most vehemently, and so does Timocrates, 
the brother of Metrodorus, in his treatise entitled the Merry 
Guests, and this Timocrates" had been a disciple in his school, 
though he afterwards abandoned it; and he says that he 
used to vomit twice a day, in consequence of his intemperance ; 
and that he himself had great difficulty in escaping from this 
nocturnal philosophy, and that mystic kind of re-union. He 
also accuses Epicurus of shameful ignorance in his reasoning, 
and still more especially in all matters relating to the conduct 
of life. And says that he was in a pitiable state of health, so 
that he could not for many years rise up from his sofa ; and 
that he used to spend a minse a day on his eating, as he him- 
self states in his letter to Leontium, and in that to the phi- 
losophers at Mitylene. He also says that many courtesans 



EPICURUS. 173 

used to live with him and Metrodorus; and among them 
Marmaricem, and Hedea, and Erotium, and Mcidium. 

And in the thirty-seven books which he wrote about natu- 
ral philosophy, they say that he says a great many things of the 
same kind over and over again, and that in them he writes in 
contradiction of other philosophers, and especially of Nausi- 
phanes, and speaks as follows, word for word : " But if any 
one else ever was afflicted in such a manner, then certainly 
this man had a continual labor, striving to bring forth the 
sophistical boastfulness of his mouth, like many other slaves." 
And Epicurus also speaks of Nausiphanes in his letters, in the 
following terms : " These things led him on to such arrogance 
of mind, that he abused me and called me a schoolmaster." 
He used also to call him Lungs, and Blockhead, and Humbug, 
and Fornicator. And he used to call Plato's followers Flat- 
terers of Dionysius, but Plato himself he called Golden. 
Aristotle he called a debauchee and a glutton, saying that he 
joined the army after he had squandered his patrimony, and 
sold drugs. He used also to call Protagoras a porter, and the 
secretary of Democritus, and to say that he taught boys their 
letters in the streets. Heraclitus he called a disturber ; 
Democritus, he nicnamed Lerocrates ;* and Antidorus, Saeni- 
dorus.t The Cynics he called enemies of Greece; and the 
Dialecticians he charged with being eaten up with envy. 
Pyrrho, he said, was ignorant and unlearned. 

But these men who say this are all wrong, for there are 
plenty of witnesses of the unsurpassable kindness of the man 
to everybody ; both his own country which honored him with 
brazen statues, and his friends who were so numerous that 
they could not be contained in whole cities ; and all his ac- 
quaintances who were bound to him by nothing but the charms 
of his doctrine, none of whom ever deserted him, except Me- 

* That is Ci trifler," from krino, to judge ; and leros, nonsensical talk, 
t That is, flattering for gifts ; from saino, to wag the tail as a dog, to caress ; 
and dor on, a gift. 

15* 



174 EPICURUS. 

trodorus, the son of Stratoniceus, who went over to Carneades, 
probably because he was not able to bear with equanimity the 
unapproachable excellence of Epicurus. Also, the perpetual 
succession of his school, which, when every other school de- 
cayed, continued without any falling off, and produced a count- 
less number of philosophers, succeeding one another without 
any interruption. We may also speak here of his gratitude 
towards his parents, and his beneficence to his brothers, and 
his gentleness to his servants (as is plain from his will, and 
from the fact too, that they united with him in his philosophi- 
cal studies, and the most eminent of them was the one whom 
I have mentioned already, named Inus); and his universal 
philanthropy towards all men. 

His piety towards the Gods, and his affection for his country 
was quite unspeakable ; though, from an excess of modesty, he 
avoided affairs of state. And though he lived when very di- 
ficult times oppressed Greece, he still remained in his own 
country, only going two or three times across to Ionia to see 
his friends, who used to throng to him from all quarters, and 
to live with him in his garden, as we are told by Apollodorus. 
(This garden he bought for eighty minse.) 

And Diodes, in the third book of his Excursion, says that 
they all lived in the most simple and economical manner ; 
" They were content," says he, " with a small cup of light 
wine, and all the rest of their drink was water." He also tells 
us that Epicurus would not allow his followers to throw their 
property into a common stock, as Pythagoras did, who said 
that the possessions of friends were held in common. For he 
said that such a doctrine as that was suited rather for those 
who distrusted one another ; and that those who distrusted 
one another were not friends. But he himself in his letters, 
says that he is content with water and plain bread, and adds, 
" Send me some Cytherean cheese, that if I wish to have a 
feast, I may have the means." This was the real character of 



EPICURUS. 175 

the man who laid down the doctrine that pleasure was the 
chief good ; whom Athenseus thus mentions ia an epigram : — 

O men, you labor for pernicious ends ; 

And out of eager avarice, begin 

Quarrels and wars. And yet tbe wealth of nature 

Fixes a narrow limit for desires, 

Though empty judgment is insatiable. 

This lesson the wise child of Neocles 

Had learnt by heart, instructed by the Muses, 

Or at the sacred shrine of Delphi's God. 

And as we advance farther, we shall learn this fact from his 
dogmas, and his apophthegms. 

He uses in his works plain language with respect to any- 
thing he is speaking of, for which Aristophanes, the gram- 
marian, blames him, on the ground of that style being vulgar. 
But he was such an admirer of perspicuit} 7 , that even in his 
treatise on Rhetoric, he aims at and recommends nothing but 
clearness of expression. And in his letters, instead of the 
usual civil expressions, "Greeting," "Farewell," and so on, 
he substitutes, " May you act well," " May you live virtuously," 
and expressions of that sort. 

He came to Athens, and he died there in the second year 
of the hundred and twenty-seventh Olympiad, in the archon- 
ship of Pytharatus, when he had lived seventy -two years. 

He died of the stone, after having been ill a fortnight ; and 
at the end of the"~fortnight, Hermippus says that he went 
into a brazen bath, properly tempered with warm water, and 
asked for a cup of pure wine, and drank it ; and having rec- 
ommended his friends to remember his doctrines, he expired. 
And there is an epigram of ours on him, couched in the fol- 
lowing language : — 

Now fare ye well, remember all my words ; 
This was the dying charge of Epicurus : 
Then to the bath he went, and drank some wine, 
And sank beneath the cold embrace of Pluto. 



170 EPICURUS. 

And when he was at the point of death, he wrote the fol- 
lowing letter to Idomeneus : — 

" We have written this letter to you on a happy day to us, 
which is also the last day of our life. For strangury has at- 
tacked me, and also a dysentery so violent, that nothing can 
be added to the violence of my sufferings. But the cheerful- 
ness of my mind, which arises from the recollection of all my 
philosophical contemplations, counterbalances all these afflic- 
tions. And I beg you to take care of the children of Metro- 
dorus, in a manner worthy of the devotion shown by the 
youth to me, and to philosophy." 

In his last will and testament he bequeathed freedom to four 
of his slaves. 

Epicurus was a most voluminous author, exceeding all men 
in the number of his books, for there are more than three 
hundred volumes of them ; and in the whole of them there is 
not one citation from other sources, but they are filled wholly 
with the sentiments of Epicurus himself. In the quantity of 
his writings he was rivalled by Chrysippus, as Carneades as- 
serts, who calls him a parasite of the books of Epicurus ; for 
if ever this latter wrote anything, Chrysippus immediately 
set his heart on writing a book of equal size ; and in this way 
he often wrote the same thing over agaiD, putting down what- 
ever came into his head ; and he published it all without any 
corrections, by reason of his haste. And he quotes such 
numbers of testimonies from other authors, that his books are 
entirely filled with them alone ; as one may find also in the 
works of Aristotle and Zeno. 

His description of a wise man is as follows : He said that 
injuries existed among men, either in consequence of hatred, 
or of envy, or of contempt, all of which the wise man over- 
comes by reason. Also, that a man who has once been wise 
can never receive the contrary disposition, nor can he of his 
own accord invent such a state of things as that he should be 
subjected to the dominion of the passions; nor can he hinder 



EPICURUS. 177 

himself in his progress towards wisdom. That the wise man, 
however, cannot exist in every state of body, nor in every 
nation. That even if the wise man were to be put to the tor- 
ture, he would still be happy. That the wise man will only 
feel gratitude to his friends, but to them equally whether they 
are present or absent. Nor will he groan and howl when he 
is put to the torture. Nor will he marry a wife whom the 
laws forbid, as Diogenes says in his epitome of the Ethical 
Maxims of Epicurus. He will punish his servants, but also 
pity them, and show indulgence to any that are virtuous. 
They do not think that the wise man will ever be in love, nor 
that he will be anxious about his burial, nor that love is a 
passion inspired by the Gods, as Diogenes says in his twelfth 
book. They also assert that he will be indifferent to the study 
of oratory. Marriage, say they, is never any good to a man, 
and we must be quite content if it does no harm ; and the 
wise man will never marry or beget children, as Epicurus 
himself lays it down in his Doubts, and in his treatises on 
Nature. Still, under certain circumstances of life, he will 
forsake these rules, and marry. Nor will he ever indulge in 
drunkenness, says Epicurus in his Banquet, nor will he entan- 
gle himself in affairs of state. Nor will he become a tyrant. 
Nor will he become a Cynic. Nor a beggar. And even 
though he should lose his eyes, he will still partake of life. 

The wise man will be subject to grief, as Diogenes says, he 
will also not object to go to law. He will leave books and 
memorials of himself behind him, but he will not be fond of 
frequenting assemblies. He will take care of his property, 
and provide for the future. He will like being in the country, 
he will resist fortune, and will grieve none of his friends. He 
will show a regard for a fair reputation to such an extent as to 
avoid being despised ; and he will find more pleasure than 
other men in speculations. 

All faults are not equal. Health is good for some people, 
but a matter of indifference to others. Courage is a quality 



178 EPICURUS. 

which does not exist by nature, but which is engendered by a 
consideration of what is suitable. Friendship is caused by 
one's wants; but it must be begun on one side. For we sow 
the earth ; and friendship arises from a community of, and 
participation in, pleasure. Happiness must be understood in 
two senses ; the highest happiness, such as is that of God, 
which admits of no increase ; and another kind, which admits 
of the addition or abstraction of pleasures. The wise man 
may raise statues if it suits his inclination, if it does not it does 
not signify. The wise man is the only person who can con- 
verse correctly about music and poetry; and he can realize 
poems, but not become a poet. 

It is possible for one wise man to be wiser than another. 
The wise man will also, if he is in need, earn money, but only 
by his wisdom ; he will propitiate an absolute ruler when oc- 
casion requires, and will humor him for the sake of correct- 
ing his habits; he will have a school, but not on such a sys- 
tem as to draw a crowd about him ; he will also recite in a 
multitude, but that will be against his inclination ; he will 
pronounce dogmas, and will express no doubts; he will be the 
same man asleep and awake; and he will be willing even to 
die for a friend. 

Amongst his fundamental maxims are the following:— 

No pleasure is intrinsically bad : but the efficient causes of 
some pleasures bring with them a great many perturbations of 
pleasure. 

Irresistible power and great wealth may, up to a certain 
point, give us security as far as men are concerned ; but the 
security of men in general depends upon the tranquillity of 
their souls, and their freedom from ambition. 

He who desires to live tranquilly without having anything 
to fear from other men, ought to make himself friends ; those 
whom he cannot make friends of, he should, at least, avoid 
rendering enemies; and if that is not in his power, he should, 



EPICURUS. 179 

as far as possible, avoid all intercourse with them, and keep 
them aloof, as far as it is for his interest to do so. 

Of all the things which wisdom provides for the happiness 
of the whole life, by far the most important is the acquisition 
of friendship. 

It is not possible to live pleasantly without living prudently, 
and honorably, and justly nor to live prudently, and hon- 
orably, and justly, withor living pleasantly. But he to whom 
it does not happen to live prudently, honorably, and justly, 
cannot possibly live pleasantly. 

Thus much concerning this philosopher, we have taken from 
Laertius. Brucker adds the following : 

During the siege of Athens by Demetrius, which happened 
when Epicurus was forty-four years of age, while the city was 
severely harassed by famine, Epicurus is said to have sup- 
ported himself and his friends on a small quantity of beans, 
which he shared equally with them. 

The luxurious refinement which prevailed in Athens, while 
it rendered every rigid scheme of philosophy, as well as all 
grossness of manners, unpopular, inclined the younger citizens 
to listen to a preceptor, who smoothed the stern and wrinkled 
brow of philosophy, and, under the notion of conducting his 
followers to enjoyment in the bower of tranquillity, led them 
unawares into the paths of moderation and virtue. Hence his 
school became exceedingly popular, and disciples flocked into 
the garden, not only from different parts of Greece, but from 
Egypt and Asia. Seneca, though a Stoic philosopher, bears 
this testimony to Epicurus: " I the more freely quote the ex- 
cellent maxims of Epicurus, in order to convince those who be- 
come his followers from the hope of screening their vices, that 
to whatever sect they attach themselves, they must live vir- 
tuously. Even at the entrance of the garden they will find 
this inscription 'the hospitable keeper of this mansion, 
Where you will find pleasure the highest good, will present 
you liberally with barley cakes and water from the spring. 



180 EPICURUS. 

These gardens will not provoke your appetite by artificial 
dainties, but satisfy it with natural supplies. "Will you not 
then be well entertained V " 

Those disciples who were regularly admitted into the school 
of Epicurus, lived together, not in the manner of the Pytha- 
gorians, who cast their possessions into a common stock, for 
this, in his opinion, implied mutual distrust, rather than friend- 
ship ; but upon such a footing of friendly attachment, that each 
individual cheerfully supplied the necessities of his brother. 
And this was no difficult task, not only on account of the 
smallness of the expenses attending their frugal manner 
of living, but because the most cordial affection subsisted 
among them. The friendship of the Epicurean fraternity is 
described by Cicero as unequalled in the history of mankind ; 
and Valerius Maximus relates a memorable example of indis- 
soluble friendship between Poly crates and Hippoclides, two 
philosophers of the garden. 

Epicurus, that he might prosecute his philosophical labors 
with the less interruption, lived in a state of celibacy. In his 
own conduct he was exemplary for temperance and conti- 
nence, and he inculcated upon his followers serenity of man- 
ners, and the strict government of the passions, as the best 
means of passing a tranquil and happy life. Notwithstanding 
his regular manner of living, towards the close of his days, 
probably in consequence of his close application to study, his 
constitution became infirm, and he was afflicted with the stone, 
of which, after great suffering, he died. 

Not only did the immediate followers of Epicurus adorn 
the memory of their master with the highest honors, but 
many eminent writers, who have disapproved his philosophy, 
have expressed great respect for his personal merit. Never- 
theless, it cannot be denied, that from the time when this phi- 
losopher appeared to the present day, an uninterrupted course 
of censure has fallen upon his memory ; so that the name of 
his sect Jias almost become a proverbial expression for every- 



EPICURUS. 181 

thing corrupt in principles, and infamous in character. The 
charges brought against Epicurus are, that he superseded all 
religious principles, by dismissing the Gods from the care of 
the world ; that, if he acknowledged their existence, it was 
only in conformity to popular prejudice, since, according to 
his system, nothing exists in nature but material atoms ; that 
he discovered great insolence and vanity in the disrespect with 
which he treated the memory of former philosophers, and the 
characters and persons of his cotemporaries ; that both the 
master and the whole fraternity were addicted to the vilest 
and most infamous vices, so that the school ought not to have 
been called a garden, but a sty ; and, in short, that this phi- 
losopher and his followers relinquished all liberal studies and 
manly pursuits, that they might devote themselves to the 
.grossest impieties and debaucheries. These accusations against 
the Epicurean school have been not only the voice of common 
rumor, but have been more or less confirmed by men distin- 
guished for their wisdom and virtue ; Zeno, Cicero, Plutarch, 
Galen, and a long train of Christian Fathers. So that if the 
question were to be determined by the number of accusers, 
there can be no doubt that Epicurus and his followers must 
be condemned. But if the cause be examined with impar- 
tiality ; if the credit of the witnesses against Epicurus be 
thoroughly canvassed ; if the causes of the spirit of invective 
raised against him be duly considered ; and if the evidences 
on the other side be allowed a fair hearing, it will perhaps be 
found that this philosopher, though in some respects highly 
censurable, has been in several others severely and unjustly 
condemned. 

Calumny never appeared with greater effrontery than in 
accusing Epicurus of intemperance and incontinence. That 
his character was distinguished by the contrary virtues, ap- 
pears not only from the numerous attestations adduced by 
Laertius, but even from the confession of the more respectable 
opponents of his doctrine, particularly Cicero, Plutarch, and 

16 



182 EPIMENIDES. 

Seneca. And indeed, without any external evidence, this is 
sufficiently clear, from, the particulars which are related con- 
cerning his usual manner of living. Chrysippns himself, one 
of his most violent enemies among the Stoics, acknowledged 
that Epicurus discovered little inclination towards sexual 
pleasures. Nothing can be a greater proof that his adver- 
saries had little to allege against his innocence, than that they 
were obliged to have recourse to forgery. The infamous let- 
ters which Diotimus, or according to Athenseus, Theotimus, 
ascribed to him, were proved in a public court, to have been 
fraudulently imposed upon the world, and the author of the 
imposition was punished. Whatever might be the case after- 
wards, there is little reason to doubt that during the life of 
Epicurus his garden was rather a school of temperance, than 
a scene of riot and debauchery. 

After the death of Epicurus, his followers celebrated his 
birth-day as a festival. They preserved his image on their 
rings or cups, or in pictures, which they carried about their 
persons, or hung up in their chambers. So great was their 
reverence for his authority, and their regard to his dying ad- 
vice, that they committed his maxims, and some of them the 
whole body of his instructions, to memory. For several ages 
they adhered with wonderful unanimity to his system, yield- 
ing as implicit submission to his decisions as the Athenians or 
Spartans ever yielded to the laws of Solon or Lycurgus. They 
carried this point so far, that it was deemed a kind of impiety 
to innovate upon his doctrine ; so that the Epicureans formed 
a Philosophical Eepublic, regulated by one judgment, and ani- 
mated by one soul. 



EPIMEKIDES 



Epimenides was a Cretan by birth, but, because he allowed 
his hair to grow long, he did not resemble a Cretan. It is 



EPIMENID V ES. 



183 



said of him that he was sent by his father into the fields to 
look for a sheep, and he turned out of the road at midday, and 
lay down in a certain cave and fell asleep, and slept there 
fifty-seven years ; and after that, when he awoke, he went on 
looking for the sheep, thinking that he had been taking a 
short nap ; 1mt as he could not find it, he went on to the field, 
and there he found every thing changed, and the estate in 
another person's possession, and so he came back again to the 
city in great perplexity ; and as he was going into his own 
house he met some people, who asked him who he was, until 
at last he found his younger brother, who had now become 
ah old man, and from him he learnt all the trutn. 

When he was recognized, be was considered by the Greeks 
as a person especially beloved by the Gods, on which account, 
when the Athenians were afflicted by a plague, and the 
priestess at Delphi enjoined them to purify their city, they 
sent a ship and Nicias, the son of Niceratus, to Crete, to in- 
vite Epimenides to Athens ; and he, coming there in the forty- 
eikth Olympiad, purified the city, and eradicated the plague 
for that time. He took some black sheep and some white 
ones, and led them up to the Areopagus, and from thence he 
let them go wherever they chose, having ordered the attend- 
ants to follow them ; and wherever any one of them lay down, 
they were to sacrifice him to the God who was the patron of 
the spot, and so the evil was stayed; and owing to this, one 
mav even now find in the different boroughs of the Athen- 
ians altars without names, which are a sort of memorial of 
the propitiation of the Gods that then took place. Some said 
that the cause of the plague was the pollution contracted by 
the city in the matter of Oylon, and that Epimenides pointed 
out to the Athenians how to get rid of it; and that in con- 
sequence, they put to death two young men, Oretmus and 
Ctesilius, and that thus the pestilence was put an end to. 

And the Athenians passed a vote to give him a talent and 
a ship to convey him back to Crete ; but he would not accept 



184 EPIMENIDES. 

the money, but made a treaty of friendship and alliance be- 
tween the Gnossians and Athenians. 

Not long after he had returned home he died, as Phlegon 
relates in his book on long-lived people, after he had lived a 
hundred and fifty-seven years ; but, as the Cretans report, he 
had lived two hundred and ninety-nine ; but, as Xenophones, 
the Oolophonian, states that he had heard it reported, he was 
a hundred and fifty-four years old when he died. 

The story of his long sleep is denied by some, who assert, 
that during that period he was absent from his country, pur- 
suing botanical studies. 

Brucker refers to him in the following language : Another 
idle story of this Cretan is, that he had the power of sending 
his soul out of his body, and recalling it at pleasure. It is 
added, that he had familiar intercourse with the Gods, and 
possessed the powers of prophecy. , During a plague in Attica, 
the Athenians sent for him to perform a sacred lustration, in 
consequence of which, it is said that the Gods were appeased, 
and the plague ceased. He is reported to have lived, after his 
return to Crete, to the age of one hundred and fifty-seven 
years. We probably owe most of these tales to the Cretans, 
who were, to a proverb, famous for their powers of invention. 
All that is credible concerning Epimenides is, that he was a 
man of superior talents, who pretended to intercourse with 
the Gods, and, to support his pretensions, lived in retirement 
upon the spontaneous productions of the earth, and practised 
various arts of imposture. Perhaps, in his hours of pretended 
inspiration, he had the art of appearing totally insensible and 
entranced, which would easily be mistaken by ignorant spec- 
tators for a power of dismissing and recalling his spirit. Solon, 
in whose time the lustration above named was performed, 
seems to have been no stranger to the true character of 
Epimenides ; for we find that he greatly disapproved of the 
conduct of the Athenians in employing him to perform this 
ceremony. Divine honors were paid him, after his death, by 
the superstitious Cretans. 



ERI6KNA. 185 



ERIGENA. 



Joannes Scotus, surnamed Erigena, is said by some writers 
to have been a native of the town of Ayr in Scotland, and 
by others to have been born in Herefordshire. For his 
profound knowledge of philosophy, he obtained among the 
writers of the Middle Age the appellation of Scotus the Wise. 
The fame of his learning reached Charles the Bald, who in- 
vited him into France, admitted him to his intimacy, and gave 
him the direction of the University of Paris. But a circum- 
stance soon afterwards arose, which brought upon him much 
obloquy and persecution. The Greek emperor, Michael the 
Stammerer, had, in the year 824, sent over, as a present of 
inestimable value to the "Western emperor, Lewis the Mild, 
the treatises of the supposed Dionysius the Areopagite, which 
had long been held in great veneration among the Greek 
Christians. This book, Charles the Bald, who could not read 
Greek, was earnestly desirous of perusing in a Latin transla- 
tion. This desire was doubtless increased by the opinion 
which at this time universally prevailed, though without any 
proof, that Dionysius the Areopagite, or St. Denys, was the 
first Christian teacher, or apostle, in France. At the request 
of the emperor, Joannes Scotus undertook the task of trans- 
lating the books of this Dionysius, " On the Celestial Mon- 
archy ;" " On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy ;" " On Divine 
Names ;" and " On Mystic Theology." These books were re- 
ceived with great eagerness by the Western churches. The 
translation, however, being made without the pope's license, 
and containing many things contrary to the received faith of 
the Church of Rome, the pope, Nicholas the First, was highly 
displeased, and wrote a threatening letter to the emperor, re- 
quiring that Scotus should be banished from the University of 
Paris, and sent to Rome. The emperor had too much respect 
for Scotus to obey the pope's order ; but Scotus thought it ad- 
16* 



186 EUBULIDES. 

visable for his safety to retire from Paris, and after the death 
of the emperor is said to have returned into England. 

It was the translation of this book which revived the knowl- 
edge of Alexandrian Platonism in the West, and laid the 
foundation of the mystical system of theology which after- 
wards so generally prevailed. Thus philosophical enthusiasm, 
born in the East, nourished by Plato, educated by Alexandria, 
matured in Asia, and adopted into the Greek church, found 
its way, under the pretext and authority of an apostolic name, 
into the Western church, and there produced innumerable mis- 
chiefs. 



EUBULIDES 



Etjbulides, of Miletus, has handed down a great many argu- 
ments or dialectics, such as the Lying one ; the Concealed one ; 
the Electra ; the Sorites ; the Horned one ; the Bald one, &c. 

The Lying one is this : — Is the man a liar who says that he 
tells lies. If he is, then he does not tell lies ; and if he does 
not tell lies, is he a liar ? 

The Concealed one : — Do you know this man who is con- 
cealed ? If you do not, you do not know your own father ; 
for he it is who is concealed. 

The Electra is a quibble of the same kind as the two pre- 
ceding ones : Electra sees Orestes : she knows that Orestes is 
her brother, but does not know that the man she sees is 
Orestes ; therefore she does know, and does not know, her 
brother at the same time. 

The Sorites is universally known. 

The Bald one is a kind of Sorites ; pulling one hair out of 
a man's head will not make him bald, nor two, nor three, and 
so on till every hair in his head is pulled out. 

The Homed one : — You have what you have not lost. You 
have not lost horns, therefore you have horns. 



EUCLID. 187 

A different translation of some of these is given as follows : 
The Lying : if, when you speak the truth, you say you lie, 
you lie ; but you say you lie when you speak the truth ; there- 
fore, in speaking the truth, you lie. The Occult. Do you 
know your father? Yes. Do you know this man who is 
veiled? No. Then you do not know your father ; for it is 
your father who is veiled. Electra. Electra, the daughter of 
Agamemnon, knew her brother, and did not know him : she 
knew Orestes to be her brother, but she did not know that 
person to be her brother who was conversing with her. 
Sorites. Is one grain a heap? No. Two grains? No. 
Three grains ? No. Go on, adding one by one ; and, if one 
grain be not a heap, it will be impossible to say what number 
of grains make a heap. The Horned. You have what you 
have not lost ; you-have not lost horns ; therefore you have 
horns. — In such high repute were these silly inventions for 
perplexing plain truth, that Chrysippus wrote six books upon 
the first of these sophisms ; and Philetas, a Coan, died of a 
consumption which he contracted by the close study which 
he bestowed upon it. The inscription upon his tomb was, 
" The deceived." A serious attempt to expose the futility of 
these disputes would now be justly deemed an idle waste of 
time and words. 



EUCLID. 

Euclid of Megara, endued by nature with a subtle and pene- 
trating genius, early applied himself to the study of philoso- 
phy. Hearing of the fame of Socrates, Euclid determined to 
attend upon his instructions, and for this purpose removed from 
Megara to Athens. Here he long remained a constant hearer 
and zealous disciple of the Moral Philosopher ; and when, in 
consequence of the enmity which subsisted between the Athen- 



188 EUCLID. 

ians and Megareans, a decree was passed by the former, that 
any inhabitant of Megara who should be seen in Athens 
should forfeit his life, he frequently came to Athens by night, 
from the distance of about twenty miles, concealed in a long 
female cloak and veil, to visit his master. Not finding his 
natural propensity to disputation sufficiently gratified in the 
tranquil method of philosophising adopted by Socrates, he 
frequently engaged in the business and disputes of the civil 
courts. Socrates, who despised forensic contests, expressed 
some dissatisfaction with his pupil for indulging a fondness for 
controversy. This circumstance probably proved the occasion 
of a separation between Euclid and his master ; for we find 
him, after this time, at the head of a school in Megara, in 
which his chief employment was to teach the art of disputa- 
tion. Debates were conducted with so much vehemence 
among his pupils, that Timon said of Euclid, that he had car- 
ried the madness of contention from Athens to Megara. That 
he was, however, capable of commanding his temper, appears 
from his reply to his brother, who in a quarrel had said, " Let 
me perish if I be not revenged on you !" " And let me perish," 
returned Euclid, " if I do not subdue your resentment by for- 
bearance, and make you love me as much as ever !" His kind 
reception of the disciples of Socrates, after the death of their 
master, has been already noticed. Euclid of Megara is not to 
be confounded with Euclid the mathematician, who flourished 
at a later period under Ptolemy Lagus, and died in the hun- 
dred and twenty -third Olympiad. 

In disputation Euclid was averse to the analogical method 
of reasoning, and judged, that legitimate argumentation con- 
sists in deducing fair conclusions from acknowledged premises. 
It is said that when Euclid was asked his opinion concerning 
the gods, he replied, " I know nothing more of them than this, 
that they hate inquisitive persons." If this apophthegm be 
justly ascribed to Euclid, it may serve to prove, either that he 
had learned from the precepts of Socrates to think soberly 



EUDOXUS EUSEBIUS. 189 

and respectfully concerning the divine nature, or that the fate 
of that good man had taught him caution in declaring his 
opinions. 



EUDOXUS. 



Etjdoxtts, a native of Cnidos, was an astronomer, a geo- 
metrician, a physician and a law-giver. 

It is said that he introduced the fashion of sitting in a semi- 
circle, at an entertainment given hy Plato. 

He composed among other works a book entitled, "Dia- 
logues of Dogs." 

He flourished about the hundred and third Olympiad ; and 
was the inventor of the theory of crooked lines. And he died 
in his fifty-third year. But when he was in Egypt with Conu- 
phis, of Heliopolis, Apis * licked his garment ; and so the priests 
said that he would be short-lived, but very illustrious, as it is 
reported by Phavorinus in his Commentaries. And we have 
written an epigram on him, that runs thus : — 

' Tis said, that while at Memphis wise Eudoxus 
Learnt his own fate from th' holy fair-horned bull ; 
He said indeed no word, bulls do not speak ; 
Nor had kind nature e'er calf Apis gifted 
With an articulately speaking mouth. 
But standing on one side he lick'd his cloak, 
Showing by this most plainly— in brief time 
You shall put off your life. So death came soon, 
When he had just seen three and fifty times 
The Pleiads rise to warn the mariners. 



EUSEBIUS. 



Eusebitts, of Myndus in Caria, though one of the disciples 
of JEdesius, appears from a conference with which he had 

* The sacred bull of the Egyptians. 



190 rAVORINUS. 

with Julian, to have considered all pretensions to intercourse 
with demons, or inferior divinities, as illusions of the fancy, 
or tricks of imposture, and to have discouraged them as un- 
worthy of the purity and sublimity of true philosophy. His 
design seems to have been to restore the contemplation of In- 
telligibles, or Ideas, as the only real and immutable natures, 
according to the doctrine of Porphyry, and of Plato himself; 
but the fanatical doctrine of an intercourse between demons 
and men, and the arts of theurgy founded upon this doctrine, 
were now too generally established, and found too useful, to 
be dismissed. Eusebius of Myndus was, therefore, less accept- 
able to the emperor Julian than another disciple of iEdesius, 
Maximus of Ephesus. 



FAVORINUS. 



Favoeinus, a native of Aries, lived in the reigns of Trajan 
and Adrian. The latter esteemed him highly for his learning 
and eloquence, and frequently disputed with him, after his 
nsual manner, upon subjects of literature and philosophy. To 
many other learned men who were inclined to do justice to 
their own talents, this unequal contest proved injurious, and 
to some even fatal ; but to Favorinus, who perceived that it 
was the emperor's foible not to endure a defeat in disputation, 
upon every occasion of this nature prudently ceded to the 
purple the triumph of conquest. One of his friends reproach- 
ing him for having so tamely given up the point in a debate 
with the emperor, concerning the authority of a certain word, 
(for the emperor was a great philologist,) Favorinus replied, 
" Would you have me contest a point with the master of fifty 
legions ?" 



GEEBERT. HEGESIAS. 191 



GEEBEET 



One of the most celebrated among the learned was Geebeet, 
a native of Orleans, archbishop of Eheims, and afterwards 
Pope Sylvester II. He merits a distinguished place in the list 
of natural philosophers, on account of the skill which he ac- 
quired in mathematics, mechanics, hydraulics, and astronomy. 
Dithmar, writing concerning Gerbert, says: "He was well 
skilled in astronomical observations, and far excelled his con- 
temporaries in various kinds of knowledge. After his banish- 
ment from France, he fled to the emperor Otho, and during 
his stay with him at Madgeburg, he made a clock, which he 
corrected by observing through a tube a certain star by which 
sailors are guided in navigation." The knowledge of nature 
which Gerbert possessed, so far surpassed that of his contem- 
poraries, that they thought him possessed of magical power ; 
and Benno, a cardinal who owed him a grudge for his oppo- 
sition to the see of Eome, invented and circulated a tale of 
his holding converse with the devil. His Epistles, of which, 
one hundred and sixty-one are still extant, contain many 
curious particulars respecting natural philosophy. Sylvester 
II. died in the year 1003. 



HEGESIAS. 



Hegesias was a disciple of the Oyrenaic sect, founded by 
Aristippus of Oyrene. His temper was too gloomy to find en- 
joyment upon his master's plan, and his principles furnished 
him with no other sources of happiness. He was so thorough- 
ly dissatisfied with life, that he thought it the only concern of 
man to avcid misery, and wrote a book to prove that death, 
as the cure of all evil, is the greatest good. Hence he ob- 
tained the appellation of peisithanatos, " Advocate for death." 



192 HERACLIDES. 

He was called " Death's Orator,'' because of a book he wrote 
upon a certain person who had nearly famished himself to 
death, but was restored by his friends. In this book he de- 
scribed the evils of life with so much power, as to beget in 
many persons a desire to die voluntarily, many of whom com- 
mitted suicide. On which account he was prohibited by King 
Ptolemy from discoursing upon the subject in the schools. 



HERACLIDES. 



Heeaolides was the son of Euthyphron, and was born at 
Heraclea, in Pontus. He was also a wealthy man. After he 
came to Athens, he was at first a disciple of Speusippus, but 
he also attended the schools of the Pythagorean philosophers, 
and he adopted the principles of Plato. Last of all, he be- 
came a pupil of Aristotle. He used to wear delicate garments, 
and was a man of great size, so that he was nicknamed by the 
Athenians, Pompicus, instead of Ponticus. But he was of 
quiet manners and noble aspect. 

He appears to have delivered his country when it was under 
the yoke of tyrants, by slaying the monarch, as Demetrius 
of Magnesia tells us, in his treatise on People of the Same 
Name. 

And he gives the following account of him: That he 
brought up a young serpent, and kept it till it grew large ; 
and that when he was at the point of death, he desired one 
of his faithful friends to hide his body, and to place the ser- 
pent in his bed, that he might appear to have migrated to the 
Gods. And all this was done ; and while the citizens were 
all attending his funeral, and extolling his character, the 
serpent, hearing the noise, crept out of his clothes and threw 
the multitude into confusion. And afterwards everything was 
revealed, and Heraclides was seen, not as he hoped to have 



HERACLIDES. 193 

been, but as he really was. And we have written an epigram 
on him, which runs thus : — 

You wish'd, O Heraclides, when you died, 

To leave a strange belief among mankind, 

That you, when dead, a serpent had become. 

But all your calculations were deceived, 

For this your serpent was indeed a beast, 

And you were thus discovered and pronounced another. 

But Hermippus says, that once, when a famine oppressed 
the land, the people of Heraclea consulted the Pythian oracle 
for the way to get rid of it ; and that Heraclides corrupted 
the ambassadors who were sent to consult the oracle, and also 
the priestess, with bribes ; and that she answered that they 
would obtain a deliverance from their distresses, if Heraclides, 
the son of Euthyphron, was presented by them with a golden 
crown, and if when he was dead they paid him honors as a 
hero. Accordingly, this answer was brought back from the 
oracle to Heraclea, but they who brought it got no advantage 
from it; for as soon as Heraclides had been crowned in the 
theatre, he was seized with apoplexy, and the ambassadors 
who had been sent to consult the oracle were stoned, and so 
put to death ; and at the very same moment the Pythian 
priestess was going down to the inner shrine, and while stand- 
ing there, was bitten by a serpent, and died immediately. 
This then is the account given of his death. 

And Aristoxenus, the musician, says, that he composed 
tragedies, and inscribed them with the name of Thespis. And 
Chameleon says, that he stole essays from him on the subject 
of Homer and Hesiod, and published them as his own. And 
Aretodorus, the Epicurean, reproaches him, and contradicts 
all the arguments which he advanced in his treatise on Justice. 
Moreover, Dionysius, called the Deserter, or, as some say, 
Spentharus, wrote a tragedy called Parthenopaeus, and forged 
the name of Sophocles to it. And Heraclides was so much 
deceived, that he took some passages out of one of his works, 

17 



194 HERACLITUS. 

and cited them as the words of Sophocles. And Dionysius, 
when he perceived it, gave him notice of the real truth ; and 
as he would not believe it, and denied it, he sent him word 
to examine the first letters of the first verses of the book, and 
they formed the name of Panculus, who was a friend of Dio- 
nysius. And as Heraclides still refused to believe it, and 
said that it was possible that such a thing might happen by 
chance, Dionysius sent him back word once more, " You will 
find this passage too : — 

' An aged raonkey is not easily caught ; 
He 's caught indeed, but only after a time.' " 

And he added, " Heraclides knows nothing of letters, and has 
no shame." 

There were fourteen persons of the name of Heraclides. 



HERACLITUS 



Heeaolitus was the son of Blyson, or, as some say, of He- 
raceon, and a citizen of Ephesus. He flourished about the 
sixty-ninth Olympiad. 

He was above all men of a lofty and arrogant spirit, as is 
plain from his writings, in which he says, " Abundant learn- 
ing does not form the mind ; for if it did, it would have in- 
structed Hesiod, and Pythagoras, and likewise Xenophanes, 
and Hecatseus. For the only piece of real wisdom is to know 
that idea, which by itself will govern everything on every oc- 
casion."; He used to say, too, that Homer deserved to be ex- 
pelled from the games and beaten, and Archilochus likewise. 
He used also to say, " It is more necessary to extinguish inso- 
lence, than to put out a fire." Another of his sayings was, 
" The people ought to fight for the law, as for their city." He 
also attacks the Ephesians for having banished his companion 
Hermodorus, when he says, "The Ephesians deserve to have 



HERACLITUS. 195 

all their youth put to death, and all those who are younger still 
banished from their city, inasmuch as they have banished Her- 
modorus, the best man among them, saying, ' Let no one of us 
be pre-eminently good ; and if there be any such person, let 
him go to another city and another people. 1 " 

And when he was requested to make laws for them, he re- 
fused, because the city was already immersed in a thoroughly 
bad constitution. And having retired to the temple of Diana 
with his children, he began to play at dice ; and when all the 
Ephesians flocked round him, he said, " You wretches, what 
are you wondering at ? is it not better to do this, than to 
meddle with public affairs in your company ?" 

And at last, becoming a complete misanthrope, he used to 
live, spending his time in walking about the mountains ; feed- 
ing on grasses and plants, and in consequence of these habits, 
he was attacked by the dropsy, and so then he returned to the 
city, and asked the physicians, in a riddle, whether they were 
able to produce a drought after wet weather. And as they 
did not understand him, he shut himself up in a stable for 
oxen, and covered himself with cow-dung, hoping to cause the 
wet to evaporate from him, by the warmth that this produced. 
And as he did himself no good in this way, he died, having 
lived seventy years; and we have written an epigram upon 
him which runs thus : — 

I've often wondered much at Heraclitus, 
That he should choose to live so miserably, 
And die by such a miserable fate. 
For fell disease did master all his body, 
With water quenching all the light of his eyes, 
And bringing darkness o'er his mind and body. 

But Hermippus states that what he asked the physicians 
was this, whether any one could draw off the water by de- 
pressing his intestines ? and when they answered that they 
could not, he placed himself in the sun, and ordered his ser- 
vants to plaster him over with cow-dung ; and being stretched 



196 HERACLITUS. 

out in that way, on the second day he died, and was buried in 
the market-place. But Neanthes, of Cyzicus says, that as he 
could not tear off the cow-dung, he remained there, and on ac- 
count of the alteration in his appearance, he was not discover- 
ed, and so was devoured by the dogs. 

And he was a wonderful person, from his boyhood, since, 
while he was young, he used to say that he knew nothing ; but 
when he had grown up, he then used to affirm that he knew 
everything. And he was no one's pupil, but he used to say, 
that he himself had investigated everything, and had learned 
everything of himself. But Sotion relates, that some people 
affirmed that he had been a pupil of Xenophanes. And that 
Ariston stated in his account of Heraclitus, that he was cured 
of the dropsy, and died of some other disease. And Hippo- 
botus gives the same account. 

There is a book of his extant, which is about nature gener- 
ally, and it is divided into three discourses ; one on the Uni- 
verse ; one on Politics ; and one on Theology. And he de- 
posited this book in the temple of Diana, as some authors 
report, having written it intentionally in an obscure style, in 
order that only those who were able men might comprehend 
it, and that it might not be exposed to ridicule at the hands of 
the common people. Timon attacks this man also, saying : — 

Among them came that cuckoo Heraclitus 
The enigmatical obscure reviler 
Of all the common people. 

Theophrastus asserts, that it was out of melancholy that he 
left some of his works half finished, and wrote several in 
completely different styles ; and Antisthenes, in his Success- 
ions, adduces as a proof of his lofty spirit, the fact, that he 
yielded to his brother the title and privileges of royalty* 
And his book had so high a reputation, that a sect arose in 

* According to Strabo, the descendants of Androclus, the founder of Ephe- 
sus (of which family Heraclitus came), bore the title of king, and had certain 
prerogatives and privileges attached to the title. 



HERACLITUS. 197 

consequence of it, who were called after his own name, Hera- 
clitean. 

The following may be set down in a general manner as his 
main principles : that everything is created from fire, and is 
dissolved into fire ; that everything happens according to des- 
tiny, and that all existing things are harmonized, and made to 
agree together by opposite tendencies ; and that all things are 
full of souls and damiones. He also discussed all the passions 
which exist in the world, and used also to contend that the 
sun was of that precise magnitude of which he appears to be. 
^/j0he of his sayings too was, that no one, by whatever road he 
might travel, could ever possibly find out the boundaries of 
the soul, so deeply hidden are the principles which regulate it. , -^ 
He used also to call opinion the sacred disease; and to say 
that eye-sight was often deceived. Sometimes, in his writ- 
ings, he expressed himself with great brilliancy and clearness ; 
so that even the most stupid man may easily understand him, 
and receive an elevation of soul from him. And his concise- 
ness, and the dignity of his style, are incomparable. 

They say that when he was asked why he preserved 
silence, he said, " That you may talk." 

Darius was very desirous to enjoy his conversation ; and 
wrote thus to him : — 

KTNG DAEITS, THE SOX OF HYSTASPES, ADDRESSES HEEAOLITrS, 
OF EPHESTJS, THE WISE MAX, GEEETIXG HTM. 

" You have written a book on Natural Philosophy, difficult 
to understand and difficult to explain. Accordingly, if in 
some parts it is explained literally, it seems to disclose a very 
important theory concerning the universal world, and all that 
is contained in it, as they are placed in a state of most divine 
motion. But commonly, the mind is kept in suspense, so 
that those who have studied your work the most, are not able 
precisely to disentangle the exact meaning of your expressions. 
Therefore, King Darius, the son of Hystaspes, wishes to enjoy 
17* 



198 HERACLITUS. 

the benefit of hearing you discourse, and of receiving some 
Grecian instruction. Come, therefore, quickly to my sight, 
and to my royal palace ; for the Greeks, in general, do not 
accord to wise men the distinction which they deserve, and 
disregard the admirable expositions delivered by them, which 
are, however, worthy of being seriously listened to and 
studied ; but with me you shall have every kind of distinction* 
and honor, and you shall enjoy every day honorable and 
worthy conversation, and your pupil's life shall become vir- 
tuous, in accordance with your precepts." 

HEEAOLITUS, OF EPHESUS, TO KING- DARIUS, THE SON OP 
HTSTASPES, GREETING. 

" All the men that exist in the world, are far removed from 
truth and just dealings ; but they are full of evil foolishness, 
which leads them to insatiable covetousness and vain-glorious 
ambition. I, however, forgetting all their worthlessness, and 
shunning satiety, and who wish to avoid all envy on the part 
of my countrymen, and all appearance of arrogance, will 
never come to Persia, since I am quite contented with a little, 
and live as best suits my own inclination." 

This was the way in which the man behaved even to the 
king. And Demetrius, in his treatise on People of the Same 
Name, says that he also despised the Athenians, among whom 
he had a very high reputation. And that though he was him- 
self despised by the Ephesians, he nevertheless preferred his 
own home. - Demetrius Phaleruus also mentions him in his 
Defence of Socrates : — 

I who lie here am Heraclitus, spare me 
Ye rude unlettered men : 'Twas not for you 
That I did labor, but for wiser people. 
One man may be to me a countless host, 
And an unnumbered multitude be no one ; 
And this I still say in the shades below. S 
V 
And there is another expressed thus : — 



HIPPARCHIA. 199 

Be not too hasty, skimming o'er the book 
Of Heraclitus : 'tis a difficult road, 
For mist is there, and darkness hard to pierce. 
But if you have a guide who knows his system, 
Then everything is clearer than the sun. 



HIPPAECHIA. 



Hippap.chia and her brother Metrocles, were natives of 
Meronea. She fell in love with both the doctrines and the 
manners of Crates, and could not be diverted from her regard 
for him by either the wealth or the high birth or personal 
beauty of any of her suitors ; but Crates was everything to 
her ; and she threatened her parents to make away with her- 
self, if she were not given in marriage to him. Crates, ac- 
cordingly, being entreated by her parents to dissuade her 
from this resolution, did all he could ; and at last, as he could 
not persuade her, he rose up, and placing all his furniture be- 
fore her, he said, ' : This is the bridegroom whom you are 
choosing, and this is the whole of his property ; consider these 
facts, for it will not be possible for you to become his partner, 
if you do not also apply yourself to the same studies, and 
conform to the same habits that he does." But the girl chose 
him : and assuming the same dress that he wore, went about 
with him as her husband, and appeared with him in public 
everywhere, and went to all entertainments in his company. 

And once, when she went to sup with Lysimachus, she at- 
tacked Theodoras, who' was surnamed the Atheist, proposing 
to him the following sophism : •• What Theodoras could not 
be called wrong for doing, that same thing Hipparchia ought 
not to be called wrong for doing. But Theodoras does no 
wrong when he beats himself; therefore Hipparchia does no 
wrong when she beats Theodoras." He made no reply to 
what she said, but only pulled her clothes about ; but Hip- 



200 HIEROCLES . H I L L E L . 

parchia was neither offended nor ashamed, as many a woman 
would have been ; but when he said to her, 

" Who is the woman who has left the shuttle 
So near the warp ?"* 

" I, Theodoras, am that person," she replied ; "but do I appear 
to you to have come to a wrong decision, if I devote that time 
to philosophy, which I otherwise should have spent at the 
loom ?" And these and many other sayings are reported of 
this female philosopher. 



HIEROCLES. 



Towaeds the close of the fifth century flourished Hieeocles, 
who was born and taught in Alexandria. He suffered severely 
for his adherence to the Pagan superstitions. At Constanti- 
nople he was cruelly scourged ; and, in the midst of his tor- 
ture, receiving some of the blood into his own hand, he threw 
it upon the face of his judge, repeating the following verse 
from Homer : — 

Cyclops, since human flesh has been thy feast, 
Now drain this goblet, potent to digest. 



HILLEL. 

Hillel, surnamed Hassaken, was born at Babylon, of poor 
parents, but of the royal stock of David, in the year one hun- 
dred and twelve before Christ. After residing forty years in 
Babylon, where he married and had a son, he removed with 
his family to Jerusalem, for the purpose of studying the law. 
Shemaiah and Abdalion were at that time eminent doctors 

* This line is from the Bacchae of Euripides. 



H Y P A T I A . 201 

in Jerusalem. Hillel, unable on account of bis poverty to gain 
a regular admission to tbeir lectures, spent a considerable part 
of the profits of his daily labor in bribing the attendants to 
allow him a place at the door of the public hall, where he 
might gather up the doctrine of these eminent masters by 
stealth ; and when this expedient failed bim, be found means 
to place himself at tbe top of tbe building, near one of the 
windows. By unwearied perseverance, Hillel acquired a pro- 
found knowledge of the most difficult points of tbe law, in 
consequence of which bis reputation rose to sucb a height, 
that he became the master of the chief school in Jerusalem. 
In this station he was universally regarded as an oracle of 
wisdom scarcely inferior to Solomon, and bad many thousand 
followers. He had such command of his temper, that no one 
ever saw bim angry. Tbe name of Hillel is in tbe bigbest 
esteem among the Jews, for the pains wbicb he took to per- 
petuate the knowledge of the traditionary law. He arranged 
its precepts under six general classes, and thus laid the founda- 
tion of that digest of the Jewish law wbicb is called tbe 
Talmud. Hillel is said to bave lived to tbe great age of one 
hundred and twenty years. 



HYPATIA. 

Hypatia was the daughter of Tbeon, a celebrated mathe- 
matician of Alexandria. Her extensive learning, elegant man- 
ners, and tragical end, bave rendered her name immortal. 
She possessed an acute and penetrating judgment, and great 
sublimity and fertility of genius, and her talents were culti- 
vated with assiduity by her father and other preceptors. Af- 
ter she bad made herself mistress of polite learning, and of 
the sciences of geometry and astronomy, as far as they were 
then understood, she entered upon the study of philosophy. 



202 HYP AT I A. 

She prosecuted this study with such uncommon success, that 
she was importuned to become a public preceptress in the 
school where Plotinus and his successors had taught ; and her 
love of science enabled her so far to subdue the natural diffi- 
dence of the sex, that she yielded to the public voice, and ex- 
changed her female decorations for the philosopher's cloak. 
In the schools, and in other places of public resort, she dis- 
coursed upon philosophical topics, explaining, and endeavoring 
to reconcile, the systems of Plato, Aristotle, and other masters. 
A ready elocution, and graceful address, united with rich eru- 
dition and sound judgment, procured her numerous followers 
and admirers ; among whom was Synesius. But that which 
reflects the highest honor upon her memory is, that, though 
she excelled most of the philosophers of her age in mathemati- 
cal and philosophical science, she discovered no pride of learn- 
ing ; and though she was in person exceedingly beautiful, she 
never yielded to the impulse of female vanity, or gave occa- 
sion to the slightest suspicion against her chastity. 

The extraordinary combination of accomplishments and 
virtues which adorned the character of Hypatia, rendered her 
house the general resort of persons of learning and distinction. 
But it was impossible that so much merit should not excite 
envy. The qualifications and attainments to which she was 
indebted for her celebrity, proved in the issue the occasion of 
her destruction. It happened that at this time the patriarchal 
chair of Alexandria was occupied by Cyril, a bishop of great 
authority, but of great haughtiness and violence of temper. In 
the vehemence of his bigotedzeal, he had treated the Jews with 
severity, and at last banished them out of Alexandria. Orestes, 
the prefect of the city, a man of a liberal spirit, highly resented 
this expulsion as an unpardonable stretch of ecclesiastical power, 
and a cruel act of oppression and injustice against a people 
who had inhabited Alexandria from the time of its founder. 
He reported the affair to the emperor. The bishop, on his 
part, complained to the prince of the seditious temper of the 



HTPATIA. 203 

Jews, and attempted to justify Ms proceedings. The emperor 
declined to interpose his authority ; and the affair rapidly ad- 
vanced to the utmost extremity. A body of about five hun- 
dred monks, who espoused the cause of Cyril, came into the 
city with a determination to support him by force. Meeting 
the prefect, as he was passing through the street in his car- 
riage, they stopped him, and loaded him with reproaches ; 
and one of them threw a stone at his head, and wounded him. 
The populace, who were by this time assembled on the part 
of the prefect, routed the monks, and seized one of their lead- 
ers. Orestes ordered him to be put to death. Cyril buried 
bis body in the church, and gave instructions that his name 
should be registered among the sacred martyrs. Hypatia, who 
had always been highly respected by the prefect, and who had, 
at this time, frequent conferences with him, was supposed by 
the partisans of the bishop to have been deeply engaged in 
the interest of Orestes. Their resentment at length rose to 
such a height, that they formed a design against her life. As 
she was one day returning home from the schools, the mob 
seized her, forced her from her chair, and carried her to the 
Cesarean church ; where stripping off her garments, they put 
her to death with extreme barbarity; and having torn her 
body limb from, limb, committed it to the flames. Cyril him- 
self has, by some writers, been suspected of secretly promot- 
ing this horrid act of violence. And if the haughtiness and 
severity of his temper, his persecution of the Jews, his op- 
pressive and iniquitious treatment of the Xovatian sect of 
Christians and their bishop, the vehemence of his present in- 
dignation against Orestes and his party, and, above all, the 
protection which he is said to have afforded to the immediate 
perpetrators of the murder of Hypatia, be duly considered, it 
"will perhaps appear that this suspicion is not wholly without 
foundation. Hypatia was murdered under the reign of the 
emperor Theodosius H. in the year four hundred and fifteen. 
Hence- it is certain that she could not have been, as Soidas, 



204 JULIAN. 

with his usual precipitation, relates, the wife of Isidorus : it 
is probable that through her whole life she remained in a state 
of celibacy. 



JULIAN". 

The emperor Julian is generally acknowledged to have 
been not only a patron of philosophers, but himself a philoso- 
pher. Referring to the civil historians for the particulars of 
his political conduct, we shall mention such incidents as more 
immediately respect his philosophical character. 

Julian, in the .early part of his life, was carefully instructed 
in literature and science by Christian preceptors. Whilst he 
was pursuing his studies at Nicomedia, his uncle Oonstantius 
strictly charged him not to attend upon the lectures of the 
celebrated Pagan Sophist, Libanius. This prohibition had no 
other effect than to awaken the young man's curiosity, and 
kindle an earnest desire of visiting the Pagan schools. Not- 
withstanding every precaution, he conversed freely with phi- 
losophers, and grew fond of the fanciful system taught by the 
Alexandrian Platonists. His natural disposition, which was 
tinctured with enthusiasm, favored this attachment ; and it 
was confirmed by the intimacy which, during his residence at 
Nicomedia, he formed with Maximus, of Ephesus. Under his 
instructions, and those of Ohrysanthius and others, he became 
a great proficient in the abstruse speculations, and in the 
theurgic arts of this school. With the permission of his uncle, 
he finished his studies at Athens, where he acquired great 
reputation in learning and philosophy, and was initiated in the 
Eleusinian mysteries. 

When Julian was called by Oonstantius to exchange the 
school of philosophy for the field of war, he made great use of 
the magic arts, which he had learned from Maximus, in exe- 
cuting his political purposes. Whilst he was at Vienna, he 



JULIAN. 205 

reported that, in the middle of the night, he had heen visited 
by a celestial form, which had in heroic verse promised him 
the possession of the imperial dignity. 

As soon as Julian reached the summit of his wishes, he 
employed his power in restoring the heathen superstition. 
He at this time, however, used no violent measures to compel 
the Christians to forsake their religion, rightly judging that 
" false opinions can never be corrected by fire and sword." 
His principal favorites were the Pagan philosophers of the 
school of iEdesius ; but learned men of every class were en- 
couraged in his court. When he afterwards shut up the 
Christian schools, it was in the hope of suppressing the Chris- 
tian religion by involving its professors in ignorance and bar- 
barism. 

This prince not only encouraged letters by his patronage, but 
was himself a learned writer. It is easy to perceive, from a 
slight inspection of his works, that he strictly adhered to the 
Alexandrian, or Eclectic school. He professes himself a warm 
admirer of Pythagoras and Plato, and recommends a union of 
their tenets with those of Aristotle. The later Platonists of 
his own period he loads with encomiums, particularly Jam- 
blicus, whom he calls the Light of the World, and the Phy- 
sician of the Mind. Amidst the numerous traces of an 
enthusiastic and bigoted attachment to Pagan theology and 
philosophy, and of an inveterate enmity to Christianity, which 
are to be found in his writings, the candid reader will dis- 
cern many marks of genius and erudition. 

Concerning the manners of Julian, Libanius writes that no 
philosopher* in the lowest state of poverty, was ever more 
temperate, or more ready to practice rigorous abstinence from 
food, as the means of preparing his mind for conversing with 
the Gods. Like Plotinus, Porphyry, Jamblicus, and others 
of this fanatical sect, he dealt in visions and ecstasies, and 
pretended to a supernatural intercourse with divinities. Suidas 

18 



206 L A C T D E S . 

relates, probably from some writings of the credulous Euna- 
pius, now lost, an oracular prediction concerning his death. 

His philosophical character attended him in his military 
exploits, and accompanied him to the last. After he had re- 
ceived his mortal wound, he held a conference with the phi- 
losophers Maximus and Priscus, concerning the soul, in the 
midst of which he expired, in the thirty-second year of his 
age. 

On the whole, although the emperor Julian must not be 
denied the place which has long been allowed him among phi- 
losophers, it must be owned that his philosophy was neither 
able to preserve him from superstition and enthusiasm, nor 
to raise his mind above the influence of the narrowest and 
most pernicious prejudices. 



LACYDES. 

Laotdes, the son of Alexander, was a native of Oyreno. 
He was the founder of the New Academy, having succeeded 
Arcesilaus. He was a man of great gravity of character and 
deportment, and one who had many imitators. He was in- 
dustrious from his very childhood, and poor, but very pleasing 
and sociable in his manners. 

They say he had a pleasant way of managing his house- 
keeping affairs. For when he had taken anything out of his 
store-chest, he would seal it up again, and throw in his seal 
through the hole, so that it should be impossible for anything 
of what he had laid up there, to be stolen from him or car- 
ried off. But his servants learning this contrivance of his, 
broke the seal, and carried off as much as they pleased, and 
then they put the ring back through the hole in the same 
manner as before ; and though they did this repeatedly, they 
were never detected. Lacvdes now used to hold his school in 



LYCON. 207 

the garden, which had been laid out by Attains, the king, and 
it was called Lacydeum, after him. 

This witty saying is attributed to Lacydes : They say that 
when Attalus sent for him, he answered that u Statues ought 
to be seen at a distance." On another occasion, as it is re- 
ported, he was studying geometry very late in life, and some 
said to him, is it then a time for you to be learning now ? " If 
it is not," he replied, " when will it be ?" 
' He died in the fourth year of the hundred and thirty-fourth 
Olympiad, of a paralysis brought on by drinking. Diogenes 
L. jests upon him in the following manner : — 

' Tis an odd story that I heard of you 
Lacydes, that you went with hasty steps, 
Spurred on by Bacchus, to the shades below. 
Now then, if this be true, can it be said 
That Bacchus e'er trips up his votaries' feet? 
'Tis a mistake, his being named Lyaeus. * 



LYCON. 

Lyoon, was native of the Troas, the son of Astyanax, a 
man of great eloquence, and of especial ability in the educa- 
tion of youth. For he used to say that it was fit for boys to 
be harnessed with modesty and rivalry, as much as for horses 
to be equipped with a spur and a bridle. And his eloquence 
and energy in speaking is apparent, from this instance. For 
he speaks of a virgin who was poor in the following manner : 
"A damsel, who, for want of a dowr} r , goes beyond the 
seasonable age, is a heavy burden to her father ;" on which 
account they say that Antigonus said with reference to him, 
that the sweetness and beauty of an apple could not be trans- 
ferred to anything else, but that one might see, in the case of 
this man, all these excellencies, in as great perfection as on a 
* From luo to relax or weaken the limbs. 



208 LYCON, 

tree ; and he said this, because he was a surpassiogly sweet 
speaker. On which account, some people prefixed a G to 
his name* But as a writer, he was very unequal to his rep- 
utation. And he used to jest in a careless way, upon those 
who repented that they had not learnt when they had the op- 
portunity, and who now wished that they had done so, saying, 
that " they were accusing themselves, showing by a prayer 
which could not possibly be accomplished, their misplaced re- 
pentance for their idleness." He used also to say, that " those 
who deliberated without coming to a right conclusion, erred in 
their calculations, like men who investigate a correct nature 
by an incorrect standard, or who look at a face in disturbed 
water, or a distorted mirror." Another of his sayings was, that 
" many men go in pursuit of the crown to be won in the 
forum, but few or none seek to attain the one to be gained at 
the Olympic games." 

As he in many instances gave much advice to the Athen- 
ians, he was of exceedingly great service to them. 

He was also a person of great neatness in his dress, wearing 
garments of an unsurpassable delicacy, as we are told by Her- 
mippus. He was at the same time exeeedingly devoted to the 
exercises of the Gymnasium, and a man who was always in 
excellent condition as to his body, displaying every quality of 
an athlete (though Antigonus of Carystus, pretends that he 
was bruised about the ears and dirty) ; and in his own country 
he is said to have wrestled and played at ball at the Ilisean 
games. 

He was exceedingly beloved by Eumenes and Attalus, who 
made him great presents ; and Antigonus also tried to seduce 
him to his court, but was disappointed. He was so great an 
enemy to Hieronymus the Peripatetic, that he was the only 
person who would not go to see him on the anniversary festi- 
val which he used to celebrate, and which we have mentioned 
in our life of Arcesilaus. He presided over his school forty- 
* So as to make it appear connected with glukus, sweet. 



LYCON. 209 

four years, as Strato had left it to him in his will, in the hun- 
dred and twenty-seventh Olympiad. 

He was also a pupil of Panthoides, the dialectician. He died 
when he was seventy-four years of age, having been a great 
sufferer with the gout, and there is an epigram of ours upon 
him : — 

Nor shall wise Lycon be forgotten, who 
Died of the gout, and much I wonder at it. 
For he who ne'er before could walk alone, 
Went the long road to hell in a single night. 

He left the following singular will : "I make the following 
disposition of my property ; if I am unable to withstand this 
disease : — All the property in my house I leave to my brothers 
Astyanax and Lycon ; and I think that they ought to pay all 
that I owe at Athens, and that I may have borrowed from 
any one, and also all the expenses that may be incurred for 
my funeral, and for other customary solemnities. And all 
that I have in the city, or in JSgina, I give to Lycon, because 
he bears the same name that I do, and because he has spent 
the greater part of his life with me, showing me the greatest 
affection, as it was fitting that he should do, since he was in 
the place of a son to me. And I leave my garden walk to 
those of my friends who like to use it ; to Bulon, and Oallinus, 
and Ariston, and Amplicon, and Lycon, and Python, and 
Aristomachus, and Heracleus, and Lycomedes, and Lycon my 
nephew. And I desire that they will elect as president him 
whom they think most likely to remain attached to the pur- 
suit of philosophy, and most capable of holding the school 
together. And I entreat the rest of my friends to acquiesce 
in their selection, for my sake and that of the place. And I 
desire that Bulon, and Oallinus, and the rest of my friends, 
will manage my funeral and the burning of my body, so that 
my obsequies may not be either mean or extravagant. And 
the property which I have in JEgina shall be divided by 
Lycon after my decease among the young men there, for the 
18* 



210 LYCON. 

purpose of anointing themselves, in order that the memory 
of me and of him who honored me, and who showed his 
affection by useful presents, may be long preserved. And let. 
him erect a statue of me ; and as for the place for it, I desire 
that Diophantus and Heroclides the son of Demetrius, shall 
select that, and take care that it be suitable for the proposed 
erection. "With the property that I have in the city let Lycon 
pay all the people of whom I have borrowed anything since 
his departure; and let Bulon and Oallinus join him in this, 
and also in discharging all the expenses incurred for my 
funeral, and for all other customary solemnities, and let him 
deduct the amount from the funds which I have left in my 
house, and bequeathed to them both in common. Let him 
also pay the physicians, Pasithemis and Medias, men who, for 
their attention to me and for their skill, are very deserving of 
still greater honor. And I give to the son of Oallinus my pair 
of Thericlean cups ; and to his wife I give my pair of Ehodian 
cups, and my smooth carpet, and my double carpet, and my 
curtains, and the two best pillows of all that I leave behind 
me-; so that as far as the compliment goes, I may be seen not 
to have forgotten them. And with respect to those who have 
been my servants, I make the following disposition : — To De- 
metrius who has long been freed, I remit the price of his free- 
dom, and I further give five minaa, and a cloak, and a tunic, 
that as he has a great deal of trouble about me, he may pass 
the rest of his life comfortably. To Criton, the Chalcedonian, 
I also remit the price of his freedom, and I further give him 
four minaa. Micras I hereby present with his freedom ; and I 
desire Lycon to maintain him, and instruct him for six years 
from the present time. I also give his freedom to Chares, and 
desire Lycon to maintain him. And I further give him two 
mines, and all my books that are published ; but those which 
are not published, I give to Oallinus, that he may publish them 
with due care. I also give to Syrus, whom I have already 
emancipated, four minae, and Menedora ; and if he owes me 



MAXIMUS. 211 

anything I acquit him of the debt. And I give to Hilaraa 
fonr minse, and a double carpet, and two pillows, and a 
curtain, and any couch which he chooses to select. I also 
hereby emancipate the mother of Micras, and Noemon, and 
Dion, and Theon, and Euphranor, and Hermeas ; and I desire 
that Agathon shall have his freedom when he has served two 
years longer ; and that Ophelion, and Poseideon, my litter- 
bearers, shall have theirs when they have waited four years 
more. I also give to Demetrius, and Criton, and Syrus, a 
couch apiece, and coverlets from those which I leave behind 
me, according to the selection which Lycon is hereby author- 
ized to make. And these are to be their rewards for having 
performed the duties to which they were appointed well. 
Concerning my burial, let Lycon do as he pleases, and bury 
me here or at home, just as he likes ; for I am sure that he 
has the same regard for propriety that I myself have. And I 
give all the things herein mentioned, in the confidence that he 
will arrange everything properly. The witnesses to this my 
will are Callinus of Hermione, Ariston of Oeos, and Euphro- 
nius of Pseania." 

As he then was thoroughly wise in everything relating to 
education, and every branch of philosophy, he was no less 
prudent and careful in the framing of his will. So that in 
this respect too, he deserves to be admired and imitated. 



MAXIMUS. 



Maximus was appointed by Constantius preceptor to Julian. 
According to the Christian historians, he introduced himself 
to Julian during his Asiatic expedition to Mcomedja. By 
accommodating his predictions to the wishes and hopes of the 
emperor, and by other parasitical arts, he gained entire pos- 
session of his confidence. The courtiers, as usual, followed 



212 MENEDEMUS. 

the example of their master, and Maximus was daily loaded 
•with new honors. He accompanied Julian in his expedition 
into Persia, and there, by the assistance of divination and 
flattery, persuaded him that he would rival Alexander in the 
glory of conquest. The event, however, proved as unfortu- 
nate to the philosopher as to the hero ; for Julian being slain 
in battle, after the short reign of Jovian, Maximus fell under 
the displeasure of the emperors Yalentinian and Valens, and, 
for the imaginary crime of magic, underwent a long course 
of confinement and suffering, which was not the less truly per- 
secution because they were inflicted upon a Pagan. Maximus 
was finally sent into his native country, and there fell a sacri- 
fice to the cruelty of the pro- consul, Festus. 



MENEDEMUS. 



Menedemts was one of those who belonged to the school 
of Pheedo ; and he was one of those who are called Theo- 
probidsB, being the son of Clisthenes, a man of noble family, 
but a poor man, and a builder. And some say that he was a 
tent-maker, and that Menedemus himself learnt both trades. 
On which account, when he on one occasion brought forward 
a motion for some decree, a man of the name of Alexinius 
attacked him, saying that a wise man had no need to draw a 
tent nor a decree. 

But when Menedemus was sent by the Eretrians to Megara, 
as one of the garrison, he deserted the rest, and went to the 
Academy, to Plato ; and. being charmed by him, he abandon- 
ed the army altogether. And when Asclepiades, the Phlia- 
sian, drew him over to him, he went and lived in Megara, 
near Stilpo, and they both became his disciples. And from 
thence they sailed to Elis, where they joined Anchipylus and 
Moschus, who belonged to Phsedo's school. And up to this 



MENEDEMUS. 213 

time, they were called Eleans ; and they were also called 
Eretrians, from the native country of Henedenrus, of whom 
I am now speaking. 

Now Menedemus appears to have been a very severe and 
rigid man, on which account Crates, parodying a description, 
speaks of him thus : — 

And Asclepiades, the sage of Phlius, 
And the Eretrian bull. 

And Timon mentions him thus : — 

Rise up, you frowning, bristling, frothy sage. 

And he was a man of such excessive rigor of principle, that 
when Eurylochus, of Cassandra, had been invited by Antig- 
onus to come to him in company with Cleippides, a youth of 
Cyzicus, he refused to go, for he was afraid lest Menedemus 
should hear of it ; for he was very severe in his reproofs, and 
very free spoken. Accordingly, when a young man behaved 
with boldness towards him, he did not say a word, but took 
a bit of stick and drew on the floor an insulting picture ; until 
the young man, perceiving the insult that was meant in 
the presence of numbers of people, went away. And when 
Hierocles, the governor of the Piraaus, attacked him in the 
temple of Amphiaraus, and said a great deal about the taking 
of Eretria, he made no other reply beyond asking what An- 
tigonus object was in treating him as he did. 

On another occasion, he said to a profligate man who was 
giving himself airs, " Do not you know that the cabbage is 
not the only plant that has a pleasant juice, but that radishes 
have it also ?" And once, hearing a young man talk very 
loudly, he said, " See whom you have behind you." When 
Antigonus consulted him whether he should go to a certain 
revel, he made no answer beyond desiring those who brought 
him the message, to tell him that he was the son of a king. 
"When a stupid fellow once said something at random to him, 
he asked him whether he had a farm ; and when he said that 



214. MENEDEMUS. 

he had, and a large stock of cattle, he said, " Go then and 
look after them, lest, if you neglect them, you lose them, and 
that elegant rusticity of yours with them." He was once asked 
whether a good man should marry, and his reply was, " Do I 
seem to you to be a good man, or not?" And when the other 
said he did ; " Well," said he, " and I am married." On one 
occasion, a person said that there were a great many good 
things, so he asked him how many ; and whether he thought 
that there were more than a hundred. And as he could not 
bear the extravagance of one man who used frequently to in- 
vite him to dinner, once when he was invited he did not say 
a single word, but admonished him of his extravagance in 
silence, by eating nothing but olives. 

On account then of the great freedom of speech in which he 
indulged, he was very near, while in Cyprus, at the court of 
Nicorreon, being in great danger with his friend Asclepiades. 
For when the king was celebrating a festival at the beginning 
of the month, and had invited them as he did all the other 
philosophers, Menedemus said, "If the assemblage of such 
men as are met here to-day is good, a festival like this ought to 
be celebrated every day ; but if it is not good, even once is 
too often." And as the tyrant made answer to this speech, 
" that he kept this festival in order to have leisure in it to lis- 
ten to the philosophers," he behaved with even more austerity 
than usual, arguing, even while the feast was going on, that it 
was right on every occasion to listen to philosophers; and he 
went on this way till, if a flute-player had not interrupted 
their discussion, they would have been put to death. In ref- 
erence to which, when they were overtaken by a storm in a 
ship, they say that Asclepiades said, "that the fine playing of 
a flute-player had saved them, but the freedom of speech of 
Menedemus had ruined them." 

But he was, they say, inclined to depart a good deal from 
the usual habits and discipline of a school, so that he never 
regarded any order, nor were the seats arranged around prop- 



MENEDEMUS. 215 

erly, but every one listened to him while lecturing, standing 
up or sitting down, just as he might chance to be at the mo- 
ment, Menedemus himself setting the example of this irregular 
conduct. But in other respects, it is said that he was a ner- 
vous man, and very fond of glory ; so that, as previously he 
and Asclepiades had been fellow journeymen of a builder, 
when Asclepiades was naked on the roof carrying mortar, 
Menedemus would stand in front of him to screen him when 
he saw any one coming. 

When he applied himself to politics he was so nervous, that 
once, when setting down the incense, he actually missed the 
incense burner. And on one occasion, when Crates was stand- 
ing by him, and reproaching him for meddling with politics, 
he ordered some men to put him in prison. But he, even then, 
continued not the less to watch him as he passed, and to stand 
on tiptoe and call him Agamemnon and Hegesipolis. He was 
also in some degree superstitious. Accordingly, once, when 
he was at an inn with Asclepiades, and had unintentionally 
eaten some meat that had been thrown away, when he was 
told of it he became sick, and turned pale, until Asclepiades 
rebuked him, telling him that it was not the meat itself which 
disturbed him, but only the idea that he had adopted. But in 
other respects he was a high-minded man, with notions such 
as became a gentleman. 

As to his habit of body, even when he was an old man he 
retained all the firmness and vigor of an athlete, with firm 
flesh, and a ruddy complexion, and very stout and fresh look- 
ing. In stature he was of moderate size ; as is plain from the 
statue of him which is at Eretria, in the Old Stadium. For he 
is there represented seated almost naked, undoubtedly for the 
purpose of displaying the greater part of his body. 

He was very hospitable and fond of entertaining his friends ; 
and because Eretria was unhealthy, he used to have a great 
many parties, particularly of poets and musicians. And he 
was very fond of Aratus and Lycophon the tragic poet, and 



216 MENEDEMUS. 

Antagoras of Ehodes. And above all he applied himself to 
the study of Homer ; and next to him to that of the Lyric 
poets ; then to Sophocles, and also to Achaeus, to whom he as- 
signed the second place as a writer of satiric dramas, giving 
iEschylus the first. And it is from Achaaus that he quoted 
these verses against the politicians of the opposite party : — 

A speedy runner once was overtaken 

By weaker men than he. An eagle too, 

Was beaten by a tortoise in a race. 

And these lines are out of the satiric play of Achaeus, called 
Omphale ; so that they are mistaken who say that he had 
never read anything but the Medea of Euripides, which is 
found, they add, in the collection of Neophron, the Sicyonian. 

Menedemus was not easy to be understood, and in his con- 
versation he was hard to argue against. He spoke on every 
subject, and had a great deal of invention and readiness. But 
he was very disputatious, as Antisthenes says in his Success- 
ions ; and he used to put questions of this sort : " Is one 
thing different from another thing ?" " Yes." " And is ben- 
efiting a person something different from the good ?" " Yes." 
" Then the good is not benefiting a person." And he, as it is 
said, discarded all negative axioms, using none but affirmative 
ones ; and of these, he only approved of the simple ones, and 
rejected all that were not simple ; saying that they were in- 
tricate and perplexing. But Heraclides says, that in his doc- 
trines he was a thorough disciple of Plato, and that he scorn- 
ed dialectics ; so that once, when Alexinus asked him whether 
he had left off beating his father, he said, " I have not beaten 
him, and I have not left off;" and when he said further that 
he ought to put an end to the doubt by answering explicitly, 
yes or no, " It would be absurd," he rejoined, " to comply 
with your conditions when I can stop you at the entrance." 

"When Bion was attacking the soothsayers with great per- 
severance, he said that he was killing the dead over -again. 
And once, when he heard some one assert that the greatest 



MENEDEMUS. 217 

good was to succeed in everything that one desires; he said, 
"It is a much greater good to desire what is proper." But 
Antigonus, of Carystus, tells us, that he never wrote or com- 
posed any work, and never maintained any principle tena- 
ciously. But in cross-questioning he was so contentious as to 
get quite black in the face before he went away. But though 
he was so violent in his discourse, he was wonderfully gentle 
in his actions Accordingly, though he used to mock and 
ridicule Alexinus very severely, still he conferred great ben- 
efits on him, conducting his wife from Delphi to Chalcis for 
him, as she was alarmed about the danger of robbers and 
banditti in the road. 

And be was a very warm friend, as is plain from his attach- 
ment to Asclepiades, which was hardly inferior to the friend- 
ship of Pylades and Orestes. But Asclepiades was the elder 
of the two, so that it was said that he was the poet, and Me- 
nedemus the actor. And they say, that on one occasion, 
Archipolis bequeathed them three thousand pieces of money 
between them, they had such a vigorous contest as to which 
should take the smaller share, that neither of them would 
receive any of it. 

It is said that they were both married, and that Asclepiadts 
was married to the mother, and ATenedemus to the daughter ; 
and when Asclepiades' wife died, he took the wife of Me- 
nedemus ; and Menedemus, when he became the chief man of 
the state, married another, who was rich ; and as they still 
maintained one house in common, Menedemus entrusted the 
whole management to his former wife. Asclepiades died first 
at Eretria, being of great age ; having lived with Menedemus 
with great economy, though they had ample means. So that, 
when on one occasion, after the death of Asclepiades, a friend 
of his came to a banquet, and when the slaves refused him 
admittance, Menedemus ordered them to admit him, saying 
that Asclepiades opened the door for him, even now that he 
was under the earth. And the men who chiefly supported 

19 



218 MENEDEMUH. 

them, were Hyporjcus, the Macedonian, and Agetor, the La- 
mian. And Agetor gave each of them thirty minse, and 
Hyporicus gave Menedemus two thousand drachmas to portion 
his daughters with ; and he had three, as Heraclides tells us, 
the children of his wife, who was a native of Oropus. 

And he used to give hanquets in this fashion : First of all, 
he would sit at dinner, with two or three friends, till late in 
the day, and then he would invite in any one who came to 
see him, .even if they had already dined ; and if any one came 
too soon, they would walk up and down, and ask those who 
came out of the house what there was on the table, and what 
o'clock it was ; and then, if there were only vegetables and 
salt-fish, they would depart ; but if they heard it was meat, 
they would go in. And during the summer, mats of rushes 
were laid upon the couches, and in winter, soft cushions; and 
each guest was expected to bring a pillow for himself. And 
the cup that was carried round did not hold more than a 
cotyla. And the second course consisted of lupins or beans, 
and sometimes fruits, such as pears, pomegranates, pulse, and 
sometimes, by Jove, dried figs. And all these circumstances 
are detailed by Lycophron, in his satiric dramas, which he 
inscribed with the name of Menedemus, making his play a 
panegyric on the philosopher. And the following are some 
of the lines : — 

After a temperate feast, a small-sized cup 
Is handed round with moderation due ; 
And conversation wise makes the dessert. 

At first, now, he was not thought much of, being called 
cynic and trifler by the Eretrians ; but subsequently, he was 
so much admired by his countrymen, that they entrusted him 
with the chief government of the State. And he was sent on 
embassies to Ptolemy and Lysimachus, and was greatly 
honored everywhere. He was sent as envoy to Demetrius ; 
and, as the city used to pay him two hundred talents a year, 
he persuaded him to remit fifty. And having been falsely 



JiENEDElICS. 219 

accused to him, as having betrayed the city to Ptolemy, he 
defended himself from the charge, in a letter. And the tradi- 
tion is, that a man of the name of iEschylus, who wa3 one of 
the opposite party in the State, was in the habit of making 
these false charges. It is well known, too, that he was sent 
on a most important embassy to Demetrius, on the subject of 
Oropus. 

Antigonus was greatly attached to him, and professed him- 
self his pupil ; and when he defeated the barbarians, near 
Lysimachia, Menedemus drew up a decree for him, in simple 
terms, free from all flattery. 

From these circumstances, and because of his friendship for 
him, as shown in other matters, he was suspected of betray- 
ing the city to him ; and being impeached by Aristodemus, 
he left the city, and returned to Oropus, and there took up his 
abode in the temple of Amphiaraus ; and as some golden gob- 
lets which were there were lost, he was ordered to depart by 
a general vote of the Boeotians. Leaving Oropus, and being 
in a state of great despondency, he entered his country secret- 
ly ; and taking with him his wife and daughters, he went to 
the court of Antigonus, and there died of a broken heart. 

But Heraclides gives an entirely different account of him ; 
saying, that while he was the chief councillor of the Eretrians, 
he more than once preserved the liberties of the city from 
those who would have brought in Demetrius the tyrant ; so that 
he never could have betrayed the city to Antigonus, and the 
accusation must have been false; and that he went to the 
court of Antigonus, and endeavored to effect the deliverance 
of his country ; and as he could make no impression on him, 
he fell into despondency, and starved himself for seven days, 
and so he died. And Antigonus of Carystus gives a similar 
account ; and Persseus was the only man with whom he had 
an implacable quarrel ; for he thought that when Antigonus 
himself was willing to re-establish the democracy among the 
Eretrians for his sake, Persseus prevented him. And on this 



220 MENEDEMUS. 

account Menedemus once attacked him at a banquet, saying 
many other things, and among them, " He may, indeed, be a 
philosopher, but he is the worst man that lives or that ever 
will live." 

And he died, according to Heraclides, at the age of seventy- 
four. And we have written the following epigram on him : — 

I 've heard your fate, O Menedemus, that of your own accord 
You starved yourself for seven days and died ; 
Acting like an Eretrian, but not much like a man, 
For spiritless despair appears your guide. 

"We add the following from Enfield's Brucker : — 
Menedemus, though well descended, was obliged through 
poverty to submit to the manual employment of an house- 
builder. He formed an early intimacy with Asclepiades, a 
Phliasian, who was a fellow-laborer with him in his humble 
occupation. Having minds more formed for study than for 
labor, they determined to devote themselves to the pursuit of 
philosophy. For this purpose they left their native country, 
and went to Athens, where Plato then presided in the 
Academy. It was soon observed that these strangers had no 
visible means of subsistence ; and, according to a law of Solon, 
they were cited before the court of Areopagus, to give an ac- 
count of the manner in which they were supported. The 
master of one of the public prisons was, at their request, sent 
for, and attested that, every night, these two youths went 
among the criminals, and, by grinding with them, earned two 
drachmas, which enabled them to spend the day in the study of 
philosophy. The magistrates, struck with admiration at such 
an extraordinary proof of an indefatigable thirst after knowl- 
edge, dismissed them with high applause, and presented them 
with two hundred drachmas * They met with several other 
friends, who liberally supplied them with whatever was neces- 
sary to enable them to prosecute their studies. 

By the advice of his friend, and probably in his society, 

* About six pounds. 



It EN E DEM US. 221 

Menedemus went from Athens to Megara, to attend upon the 
instructions of Stilpo. He expressed his approbation of the 
manner in which this philosopher taught, by giving him the 
appellation of The Liberal. He next visited Elis, where he 
became a disciple of Phsedo, and afterwards his successor. 
Transferring the Eliac school from Elis to his native city, he 
gave it the name of Eretrian. In his school he neglected 
those forms which were commonly observed in places of this 
kind: his hearers were not, as usual, placed on circular 
benches around him ; but every one attended him in whatever 
posture he pleased, standing, walking, or sitting. 

At first Menedemus was received by the Eretrians with con- 
tempt ; and, on account of the vehemence with which he dis- 
puted, he was often branded with the appellations of cur, and 
madman. But afterwards he rose into high esteem, and was 
intrusted with a public office, to which was annexed an an- 
nual stipend of two hundred talents. He discharged the 
trust with fidelity, but accepted only a fourth part of the ap- 
pointment. 

Menedemus possessed great readiness and versatility of 
genius, and was able to dispute on every subject with keen- 
ness and fluency. He declared his opinions with freedom, in- 
veighed with severity against the vices of others, and by the 
purity of his own manners commanded universal respect. He 
observed the strictest moderation in his manner of living. 
His entertainments, which were frequented by many philoso- 
phers and men of distinction, were simple and frugal, consist- 
ing chiefly of vegetables, and were always enlivened by liberal 
conversation. He died about the hundred and twenty-fourth 
Olympiad. 

There was another Menedemus, of whom the following is 
related. He was a disciple of Celotes of Lampsacus : 

He proceeded, as Hippobotus tells, to such a great degree 
of superstition, that he assumed the garb of a fury, and went 
about saying that he had come from hell to take notice of all 

19* 



222 M O N I M u s . 

who did wrong, in order that he might descend thither again 
and make his report to the deities who abode in that country. 
And this was his dress : a tunic of a dark color reaching to 
his feet, and a purple girdle round his waist, an Arcadian hat 
on his head with the twelve signs of the zodiac, embroidered 
on it, tragic buskins, a preposterously long beard, and an ashen 
staff in his hand. 



MONIMUS. 



Monimus was a Syracusan, and also a slave of some Corin- 
thian money-changer. Xeniades, who bought Diogenes, used 
often to come to him, extolling the excellency of Diogenes, 
both in actions and words, till he excited a great affection for 
the man in the mind of Monimus. For he immediately feigned 
madness, and threw about all the money and all the coins that 
were on the table, until his master discarded him, and then he 
straightway went to Diogenes and became his pupil. He also 
followed Orates the Cynic, a good deal, and devoted himself to 
the same studies as he did. His master regarded this conduct 
as additional evidence of his madness. 

Monimus became a very eminent man, so that even Menan- 
der, the comic poet, speaks of him in the Hippocomus thus : — 

There is a man, O Philo, named Monimus, 
A wise man, though hut little known, and one 
Who bears a wallet at his back, and is not 
Content with one but three. He never spoke 
A single sentence, by great Jove I swear, 
Like this one, " know thyself," or any other 
Of the oft-quoted proverbs: all such sayings 
He scorned, as he did beg his way through dirt ; 
Teaching that all opinion is but vanity. 

He was a man of such gravity that he despised glory and 
sought only for truth. 



PI T T A c u s . 223 



MUSONIUS. 

Musonius a Babylonian (confounded by Suidas with Muso- 
nius the Tuscan, a Stoic philosopher) is ranked by Eunapius 
among the most virtuous and excellent of the Modern Cynics. 
Philostratus speaks of him as next to Apollonius in wisdom, 
and as an eminent philosopher. His cynical spirit would not 
permit him to spare the vices of Nero ; and the resentment of 
that tyrant consigned him to prison. Whilst he was in con- 
finement he formed a friendship with Apollonius, and held a 
correspondence with him, some specimens of which are pre- 
served by Philostratus. He was at last banished to the Isth- 
mus of Greece, and condemned to remain a slave, and to 
labor daily with the spade. His friend Demetrius, seeing him 
in this condition, expressed great concern at his misfortunes ; 
upon which Musonius, striking Ms spade firmly in the ground, 
said, " Why, Demetrius, do you lament to see me digging in 
the Isthmus ? You might indeed lament if you saw me, like 
Nero, playing upon the harp." Julian speaks with admiration 
of his magnanimity. The time of his death is uncertain ; and 
none of his writings remain. 



PITTAOUS. 



Pittaous was a native of Mitylene, and son of Hyrradius. 
But Duris says, that his father was a Thracian. He in union 
with the brothers of Alcceus, put down Melanchrus the tyrant 
of Lesbos. In the battle which took place between the Athen- 
ians and Mitylenasans on the subject of the district of Achilis, 
he was the Mitylenasan general ; the Athenian commander 
being Phrynon, a Pancratiast, who had gained the victory at 
Olympia. Pittacus agreed to meet him in single combat, and 



224 PITTACUS. 

having a net under his shield, he entangled, Phrynon without 
his being aware of it beforehand, and so, having killed him, 
he preserved the district in dispute to his countrymen. But 
Appollodorus, in his Chronicles, says, that subsequently, the 
Athenians had a trial with the Mitylenseans about the district, 
and that the cause was submitted to Periander, who decided it 
in favor of the Athenians. 

In consequence of this victory the Mitylenseans held Pitta- 
cus in the greatest honor, and committed the supreme power 
into his hands which he held for ten years, and then, when he 
had brought the city and constitution into good order, he 
resigned the government. He lived ten years after that, and 
the Mitylenseans assigned him an estate, which he consecrated 
to the God, and to this day it is called the Pittacian land. But 
Sosicrates says that he cut off a small portion of it, saying that 
half was more than the whole ; and when Croesus offered him 
some money he would not accept it, as he said he had 
already twice as much as he wanted ; for that he had succeed- 
ed to the inheritance of his brother, who had died without 
children. 

But Pamphila says, in the second book of his Commenta- 
ries, that he had a son named Tyrrhseus, who was killed while 
sitting in a barber's shop, at Cyma, by a brazier, who threw an 
axe at him; and that the Cymeeans sent the murderer to Pit- 
tacus, who when he had learnt what had been done, dismissed 
the man, saying, "Pardon is better than repentance." But 
Heraclitus says that the true story is, that he had got Alcasus 
into his power, and that he released him, saying, "Pardon is 
better than punishment." He was also a law-giver ; and he 
made a law that if a man committed a crime while drunk, he 
should have double punishment; in the hope of deterring men 
from getting drunk, as wine was very plentiful in the island. 

It was a saying of his that it was a hard thing to be good, 
and this apophthegm is quoted by Simonides, who says, " It 
was a saying of Pittacus. that it is a hard thing to be really a 



PITTACUS. 225 

good man.-" Plato also mentions it in his Protagoras. An- 
other of his sayings was, " Even the Gods cannot strive against 
necessity." Another was, "Power shows the man." Being 
once asked what was best, he replied, "To do what one is 
doing at the moment well." When Crcesus put the question 
to him, " What is the greatest power ?" " The power," he re- 
plied, " of the variegated wood," meaning the wooden tablets 
of the laws. He used to say too, that there were some victo- 
ries without bloodshed. He said once to a man of Phocoea, 
who was saying that we ought to seek out a virtuous man, 
"But if you seek ever so much you will not find one." Some 
people once asked him what thing was very grateful ? and he 
replied, "Time."— What was uncertain? "The future." — 
What was trusty? "The land." — What was treacherous? 
" The sea." Another saying of his was, that it was the part 
of wise men, before difficult circumstances arose, to provide 
for their not arising ; but that it was the part of brave men to 
make the best of existing circumstances. He used to say too, 
"Do not say before hand what you are going to do ; for if you 
fail, you will be laughed at." "Do not reproach a man with 
his misfortunes, fearing lest Xemesis may overtake you." " If 
you have received a deposit, restore it." " Forbear to speak 
evil not only of your friends, but also of your enemies." 
" Practice piety, with temperance." " Cultivate truth, good 
faith, experience, cleverness, sociability, and industry." "Watch 
your opportunity." 

He wrote also some songs, of which the following is the 
most celebrated one: — 

The wise will only face the wicked man, 

With bow in hand well bent, 

And quiver full of arrows— 

For such a tongue as his says nothing true, 

Prompted by a wily heart 

To utter double speeches. 

He also composed six hundred verses in elegiac metre ; and 



226 PITTACUS. 

he wrote a treatise in prose, on Laws, addressed to his country- 
men. 

He flourished about the forty-second Olympiad ; and he died 
when Aristomenes was Archon, in the third year of the fifty- 
second Olympiad ; having lived more than seventy years, being 
a very old man. On his tomb is this inscription : — 

Lesbos who bore him here, with tears doth bury 
Hyrradius' worthy son, wise Pittacus. 

There was also another Pittacus, a law-giver, who was call- 
ed Pittacus the less. 

But it is said that the wise Pittacus once, when a young man 
consulted him on the subject of marriage, made him the follow- 
ing answer, which is thus given by Calliniachus in his Epi- 
grams : — 

Hyrradius' prudent son, old Pittacus, 

The pride of Mitylene, once was asked 

By an Atarneau stranger ; " Tell me, sage, 

I have two marriages proposed to me ; 

One maid my equal is in birth and riches ; 

The other's far above me ; — which is best? 

Advise me now which shall 1 take to wife ?" 

Thus spoke the stranger ; but the aged prince, 

Raising his old man's staff before his face, 

Said, " These will tell you all you want to know ;" 

And pointed to some boys, who with quick lashes 

Were driving whipping tops along the street. 

" Follow their steps," said he ; so he went near them 

And heard them say, " Let each now mind his own." 

So when the stranger heard the boys speak thus, 

He pondered on their words, and laid aside 

Ambitious thoughts of an unequal marriage, 

As then he took to shame the poorer bride, 

So too do you, O reader, mind thy own. 

It seems that he may have here spoken from experience, for 
his own wife was of more noble birth than himself, since she 
was the sister of Draco, the son of Penthilus ; and she gave 
herself great airs, and tyrannized over him. 

Alcseas calls Pittacus, splay-footed <Lraggler y because he was 



PERIANDER. 227 

splay-footed, and used to drag his feet in walking ; he also 
called him chaji-footed, because he had scars on his feet which 
were called chaps. And supercilious, implying that he gave 
himself airs without reason. And 'pawneli and oelly because, 
he was fat. He also called him eater- in-the~darJc because he 
had weak eyes, and the lazy and dirty. He used to grind corn 
for the sake of exercise, as Clearchus, the philosopher, relates. 
There is a letter of his extant, which runs thus: — 

PITTAOTJS TO CRCESTTS. 

You invite me to come to Lydia in order that I may see 
your riches ; but, I, even without seeing them, do not doubt 
that the son of Alyattes is the richest of monarchs. But I 
should get no good by going to Sardis; for I do not want- 
gold myself, hut what I have is sufficient for myself and my 
companions. Still, I will come, in order to become acquainted 
with you as a hospitable man. 



PERIANDER. 



Periander was a Corinthian, the son of Oypselus, of the 
family of the Heraclidre. He married Lyside (whom he him- 
self called Melissa), the daughter of Procles the tyrant of 
Epidaurus, and of Eristhenea the daughter of Aristocrates, and 
sister of Aristodemus, who governed nearly all Arcadia, and 
had by her two sons Oypselus and Lycophron, the younger of 
whom was a clever boy, but the elder was deficient in intel- 
lect. At a subsequent period he in a rage either kicked or 
threw his wife down stairs when she was pregnant, and so 
killed her, being wrought upon by ihe false accusations of his 
concubines, whom he afterwards burnt alive. And the child, 
whose name was Lycophron, he sent away to Oorcyra because 
he grieved for his mother. 



228 PERIANDER. 

But afterwards, when he was now extremely old, he sent 
for him back again, in order that he might succeed to the 
tyranny. But the Corcyreans, anticipating his intention, put 
him to death, at which he was greatly enraged, and sent their 
children to Oorcyra to be made eunuchs of; and when the ship 
came near to Samos, the youths, having made supplications to 
Juno, were saved by the Samians. And he fell into despond- 
ency and died, being eighty years old. Sosicrates says that 
he died forty-one years before Croesus, in the last year of the 
forty-eighth Olympiad. Herodotus, in the first book of his 
History, says that he was connected by ties of hospitality with 
Thrasybulus the tyrant of Miletus. And Aristippus, in the 
first book of his Treatise on Ancient Luxury, tells the follow- 
ing story of him ; that his mother Oratea fell in love with 
him, and introduced herself secretly into his bed ; and he was 
delighted ; but when the truth was discovered he became very 
oppressive to all his subjects, because he was grieved at the 
discovery. Ephorus relates that he made a vow that, if he 
gained the victory at Olympia in the chariot race, he would 
dedicate a golden statue to the Grod. Accordingly he gained 
the victory ; but being in want of gold, and seeing the women 
at some national festival beautifully adorned, he took away 
their golden ornaments, and then sent the offering which he 
had vowed. 

But some writers say that he was anxious that his tomb 
should not be known, and that with that object he adopted 
the following contrivance. He ordered two young men to go 
out by night, indicating a particular road by which they were 
to go, and to kill the first man they met, and bury him ; after 
them he sent out four other men who were to kill and bury 
them. Again he sent out a still greater number against these 
four, with similar instructions. And in this manner he put 
himself in the way of the first pair, and was slain, and the 
Corinthians erected a cenotaph over him with the following 
inscription : — 



PERIAXDER. 229 

The sea-beat land of Corinth in her bosom, 
Doth here embrace her ruler Feriander, 
Greatest of all men for his wealth a.id wisdom. 

\Ye ourselves have also written an epigram upon liim: — 

Grieve not when disappointed of a wish, 

But be content with what the Gods may give you— 

For the great Periander died unhappy, 

At failing in an object he desired. 

It was a saying of his that we ought not to do anything for 
the sake of money ; for that we ought only to acquire such 
gains as are allowable. He composed apophthegms in verse 
to the number of two thousand lines ; and said that those who 
wished to wield absolute power in safety, should be guarded 
by the good will of their countrymen, and not by arms. And 
once, being asked why he assumed tyrannical power, he re- 
plied, "Because, to abdicate it voluntarily, and to have it 
taken from one, are both dangerous." The following sayings 
also belong to him : — Tranquillity is a good thing. — Rashness 
is dangerous. — Gain is disgraceful. — Democracy is better than 
tyranny. — Pleasures are transitory, but honor is immortal. — 
Be moderate when prosperous, but prudent when unfortunate. 
—Be the same to your friends when they are prosperous, and 
when they are unfortunate. — Whatever you agree to do, ob- 
serve. — Do not divulge secrets. — Punish not only those who 
do wrong, but those who intend to do so. 

This prince was the first who had body-guards, and who 
changed a legitimate power into a tyranny ; and he would 
not allow any one who chose to live in his city. 

And he flourished about the thirty-eighth Olympiad, and 
enjoyed absolute power for forty years. But Sotion, and 
Heraclides, and Pamphila, in the fifth book of her Comment- 
aries, says that there were two Perianders ; the one a tyrant, 
and the other a wise man and a native of Arabracia. And 
Neanthes of Cyzicus makes the same assertion, adding, that 
the two men were cousins to one another. And Aristotle 
20 



230 PERIANDER. 

says, that it was the Corinthian Periander who was the wise 
one ; but Plato contradicts him. The saying — " Practice does 
everything," is his. He it was, also, who proposed to cut 
through the Isthmus. 

The following letter of his is quoted : — 

PEEIAjSTJEE to the wise hex. 

I give great thanks to Apollo of Delphi that my letters are 
able to determine you all to meet together at Corinth ; and I 
will receive you all, as you may be well assured, in a manner 
that becomes free citizens. I hear also that last year you met 
at Sardis, at the court of the King of Lydia. So now do not 
hesitate to come to me, who am the tyrant of Corinth ; for 
the Corinthians will all be delighted to see you come to the 
house of Periander. 

There is this letter too : — 

PEBIAXDEE TO PEOOLES. 

The injury of my wife was unintended by me ; and you 
have done wrong in alienating from me the mind of my child. 
I desire you, therefore, either to restore me to my place iu his 
affections, or I will revenge myself on you ; for I have myself 
made atonement for the death of your daughter, by burning 
in her tomb the clothes of all the Corinthian women.* 

Thrasybulus also wrote him a letter in the following 
terms : — 

I have given no answer to your messenger; but having 
taken him into a field, I struck with my walking-stick all the 
highest ears of corn, and cut off their tops, while he was walk- 
ing with me. And he will report to you, if you ask him, 
everything which he heard or saw while with me ; and do 
you act accordingly if you wish to preserve your power safely, 

* Herodotus mentions the case of Periander's children, iii. 50, and the death 
of his wife, and his burning the clothes of all the Corinthian women", v. 92. 



PHERECYDES. 231 

taking off the most eminent of the citizens, whether he seems 
an enemy to you or not, as even his companions are deserved- 
ly objects of suspicion to a man possessed of supreme power. 



PHERECYDES. 



Pherecydes was a Syrian, the son of Babys, and a pupil 
of Pittacus. Theopompus says that he was the first person 
who ever wrote among the Greeks on the subject of Natural 
Philosophy and the Gods. And there are many marvellous 
stories told of him. For it is said that he was walking along 
the sea-shore at Samos, and that seeing a ship sailing by with 
a fair wind, he said that it would soon sink ; and presently it 
sank before their eyes. At another time he was drinking 
some water which had been drawn up out of a well, and he 
foretold that within three days there would be an earthquake ; 
and there was one. And as he was going up to Olympia, and 
had arrived at Messene, he advised his entertainer, Perilaus, 
to migrate from the city with all his family, but that Perilaus 
would not be guided by him ; and afterwards Messene was 
taken. 

He is said to have told the Lacedaemonians to honor neither 
gold nor silver, as Theopompus says in his Marvels ; and it is 
reported that Hercules laid this injunction on him in a dream, 
and that the same night he appeared also to the kings of 
Sparta, and enjoined them to be guided by Pherecydes ; but 
some attribute these stories to Pythagoras. 

Hermippus relates that when there was a war between the 
Ephesians and Magnesians, he, wishing the Ephesians to con- 
quer, asked some one, who was passing by, from whence he 
came? and when he said, " From Ephesus," " Drag me now," 
said he, " by the legs, and place me in the territory of the 
Magnesians, and tell your fellow countrymen to bury me there 



232 PHERECYDES. 

after they have got the victory ; and that he went and re- 
ported that Pherecydes had given him this order. And so 
they went forth the next day and defeated the Magnesians ; 
and as Pherecydes was dead, they buried him there and paid 
him very splendid honors. 

But some writers say that he went to Delphi, and threw 
himself down from the Corycian hill ; Aristoxenus, in his 
History of Pythagoras and his Friends, says that Pherecydes 
fell sick and died, and was buried by Pythagoras in Delos. 
But others say that he died of the lousy disease ; and when 
Pythagoras came to see him, and asked him how he was, he 
put his finger through the door, and said, " You may see by 
my skin." And from this circumstance that expression passed 
into a proverb among the philosophers, when affairs are going 
on badly ; and those who apply it to affairs that are going on 
well, make a blunder. He used to say, also, that the Gods 
call their table thuros, i. e. a social table. It also means, 
money-changer's table. 

And I myself have composed an epigram on him in the 
Pherecratean metre : — 

The story is reported, 

That noble Pherecydes, 

Whom Syros calls her own, 

Was eaten up by lice ; 

And so he bade his friends. 

Convey his corpse away 

To the Magnesian laud, 

That he might victory give 

To holy Ephesus. 

For well the God had said, 

(Though he alone did know 

Th' oracular prediction), 

That this was fate's decree. 

So in that land he lies. 

This then is surely true, 

That those who 're really wise 

Are useful while alive, 

And e'en when breath has left them. 



PLATO. 233 

He flourished about the fifty-ninth Olympiad. There is a 
letter of his extant in the following terms : — 

PHEKEOYDES TO THALES. 

May you die happily when fate overtakes you. Disease 
has seized upon me at the same time that I received your 
letter. I am all over lice, and suffering likewise under a low 
fever. Accordingly, I have charged my servants to convey 
this book of mine to you, after they have buried me. And do 
you, if you think fit, after consulting with the other wise men, 
publish it ; but if you do not approve of doing so, then keep 
it unpublished, for I am not entirely pleased with it myself. 
The subject is not one about which there is any certain knowl- 
edge, nor do I undertake to say that I have arrived at the 
truth ; but I have advanced arguments, from which any one 
who occupies himself with speculations on the divine nature, 
may make a selection ; and as to other points, he must exer- 
cise his intellect, for I speak obscurely throughout. I, myself, 
as I am afflicted more severely by this disease every day, no 
longer admit any physicians, or any of my friends. But when 
they stand at the door, and ask me how I am, I put out my 
finger to them through the opening of the door, and show 
them how I am eaten up with the evil ; and I desired them 
to come to-morrow to the funeral of Pherecydes. 



PLATO. 

Plato was the son of Ariston and Perictione or Petone, 
and a citizen of Athens ; and his mother traced her family 
back to Solon ; Plato being the sixth in descent from Solon. 
And Solon traced his pedigree up to Neleus and Neptune. 
They say, too, that on the father's side he was descended from 
Codrus, the son of Melanthus, and they, too, are said by Thra- 
20* 



234 PLATO. 

sylus to derive their origin from Neptune. The report at 
Athens was that Perictione was very beautiful, and that Ariston 
endeavored to violate her and did not succeed ; and that he, 
after he had desisted from his violence, saw a vision of Apollo 
in a dream, in consequence of which he abstained from ap- 
proaching his wife till after her confinement. 

Plato was born, as Apollodorus says in his Chronicles, in 
the eighty-eighth Olympiad, on the seventh day of the month 
Thargelion, on which day the people of Delos say that Apollo 
also was born. And he died, as Hermippus says, at a marriage 
feast, in the first year of the hundred and eighth Olympiad, 
having lived eighty-one years. But Neanthes says that he 
was eighty-four years of age at his death. 

He was of the borough of Oolytns, as Antileon tells us in 
his second book on Dates. And he was born, according to 
some writers, in iEgina, in the house of Phidiades, the son of 
Thales. His father had been sent thither with several others 
as a settler, and returned again to Athens when the settlers 
were driven out by the Lacedaemonians, who came to the assist- 
ance of the iEginetans. And he served the office of choregus 
at Athens, when Dion was at the expense of the spectacle ex- 
hibited, as Theodorus relates in the eighth book of his Philo- 
sophical Conversations. 

He was taught learning in the school of Dionysius, whom 
he mentions in his Rival Lovers. And he learnt gymnastic 
exercises under the wrestler Ariston of Argos. And it was 
by him that he had the name of Plato given to him instead 
of his original name, on account of his robust figure, as he had 
previously been called Aristocles, after the name of his grand- 
father, as Alexander informs us in his Successions. But some 
say that he derived this name from the breadth (Platutes, 
broad) of bis eloquence, or else because he was very wide 
(Platus, width) across the forehead, as Neanthes affirms. 

It is also said that he applied himself to the study of paint- 



PLATO. 235 

ing, and that he wrote poems, dithyrambics at first, and after- 
wards lyric poems and tragedies. 

But he had a very weak voice, they say ; and the same fact 
is stated by Tiinotheus the Athenian, in his book on Lives. 
And it is said that Socrates in a dream saw a cygnet on his 
knees, who immediate])' put forth feathers, and flew up on 
high, uttering a sweet note, and that the next day Plato came 
to him, and that he pronounced him the bird which he had 
seen. 

He used to philosophize at first in the Academy, and after- 
wards in the garden near Colonus ; and subsequently, though 
he was about to contend for the prize in tragedy in the theatre 
of Bacchus, after he had heard the discourse of Socrates, he 
learnt his poems, saying : — 

Vulcan, come here ; for Plato wants your aid. 

Having fallen sick at Eurytus, he was cured by the priests 
by the application of sea water, in reference to w r hich he said : — 

The sea doth wash away all human evils. 

And he said too, that, according to Homer, all the Egyptians 
were physicians. Plato had also formed the idea of making 
the acquaintance of the Magi ; but he abandoned it on account 
of the w T ars in Asia. 

When he returned to Athens, he settled in the Academy, 
and that is a suburban place of exercise planted like a grove, 
so named from an ancient hero named Hecademus. 

In the well-shaded walks, protected well 
By Godlike Academus. 

Timon, with reference to Plato, says : — 

A man did lead them on, a strong stout man, 
A honeyed speaker, sweet as melody 
Of tuneful grasshopper, who, seated high 
On Hecademus' tree, unwearied sings. 

For the word Academy was formerly spelt with E. He was 
three times engaged in military expeditions ; once against 



236 PLATO. 

Tanagra; the second time against Corinth, and the third 
time at Delium ; and that in the battle of Delium he obtained 
the prize of pre-eminent valor. He combined the principles 
of the schools of Heraclitus, and Pythagoras and Socrates ; for 
he used to philosophize on those things which are the subjects 
of sensation, according to the system of Heraclitus ; on those 
with which intellect is conversant, according to that of Pytha- 
goras ; and on politics, according to that of Socrates. 

Plato made three voyages to Sicily, first of all for the pur- 
pose of seeing the island and the craters of volcanoes, when 
Dionysius, the son of Hermocrates, being the tyrant of Sicily, 
pressed him earnestly to come and see him ; and he, convers- 
ing about tyranny, and saying that that is not the best govern- 
ment which is advantageous for one individual alone, unless 
that individual is pre-eminent in virtue, had a quarrel with 
Dionysius, who got angry, and said, " Your words are those of 
an old dotard :" to which Plato replied, "And your language 
is that of a tyrant." And on this the tyrant became very in- 
dignant, and at first was inclined to put him to death ; but af- 
terwards, being appeased by Deni and Aristimenes, he forebore 
to do that, but gave him to Pollis, the Lacedaemonian, who 
happened to have come to him on an embassy just at that 
time, to sell as a slave. And he took him to JEgina and sold 
him ; and Charmander, the son of Charmandrides, instituted 
a capital prosecution against him, in accordance with the law 
which was in force, in the island of ^Egina, that the first 
Athenian who landed on the island should be put to death 
without a trial ; and he himself was the person who had ori- 
ginally proposed that law, as Pharorinus says, in his Universal 
History. But when some one said, though he said it only in 
joke, that it was a philosopher who had landed, the people re- 
leased him. But some say that he was brought into the as- 
sembly and watched ; and that he did not say a word, but 
stood prepared to submit to whatever might befall him ; and 
that they determined not to put him to death, but to sell him 



PLATO. 237 

after the fashion of prisoners of war. And it happened by- 
chance that Anniceris, the Cyrenean, was present, who ran- 
somed him for twenty minae, or, as others say, for thirty, and 
sent him to Athens, to his companions, and they immediately 
sent Anniceris his money : but he refused to receive it, saying 
that they were not the only people in the world who were en- 
titled to have a regard for Plato. Some writers again say, 
that it was Deni who sent the money, and that he did not re- 
fuse it, but bought him the garden in the Academy. And with 
respect to Pollis it is said that he was defeated by Chabrias, 
and that he was afterwards drowned in Helia, in consequence 
of the anger of the deity at his treatment of this philosopher. 
And this is the story told by Pharorinus in the first book of 
his Commentaries. Dionysius, however, did not remain quiet ; 
but when he had heard what had happened he wrote to Plato 
not to speak ill of him, and he wrote back in reply that he had 
not leisure enough to think at all of Dionysius. 

But he went a second time to Sicily to the younger Diony- 
sius, and asked him for some land and for some men whom he 
might make live according to his own theory of a constitution. 
And Dionysius promised to give him some, but never did it. 
And some say that he was in danger himself, having been sus- 
pected of exciting Dion and Thetasto attempt the deliverance 
of the island ; but that Archytas, the Pythagorean, wrote a 
letter to Dionysius, and begged Plato off and sent him back safe 
to Athens. 

In his own country he did not meddle with state affairs, al- 
though he was a politician as far as his writings went. And 
the reason was that the people were accustomed to a form of 
government and constitution different from what he approved 
of. And Pamphile, in the twenty-fifth book of his Commen- 
taries, says that the Arcadians and Thebans, when they were 
founding a great city, appointed him its law-giver ; but that 
he, when he had ascertained that they would not consent to 
an equality of rights, refused to go thither. 



238 PLATO. 

It is said also, that he defended Chabrias the general, when 
he was impeached in a capital charge ; when no one else of the 
citizens would undertake the task; and as he was going up 
towards the Acropolis with his client, Crobylus the sycophant 
met him and said, " Are you come to plead for another, not 
knowing that the hemlock of Socrates is waiting also for you ?" 
But he replied, "And also, when I fought for my country I 
encountered dangers ; and now too I encounter them in the 
cause of justice and for the defence of a friend." 

He was the first author who wrote treatises in' the form of 
dialogues, as Pharorinus tells us in the eight book of his Uni- 
versal History. And he was also the first person who intro- 
duced the analytical method of investigation, which he taught 
to Leodamus of Thasos. He was also the first person in philos- 
ophy who spoke of antipodes, and elements, and dialectics, 
and actions and oblong numbers, and plane surfaces, and the 
providence of God. He was likewise the first of the philoso- 
phers who contradicted the assertion of Lysias, the son of Ceph- 
alus, setting it out word for word in his Phsedrus. And he 
was also the first person who examined the subject of grammat- 
ical knowledge scientifically. And as he argued against 
almost every one who had lived before his time, it is often 
asked why he has never mentioned Democritus. 

Neanthes of Oyzicus says, that when he came to the Olym- 
pic games all the Greeks who were present turned to look at 
him; and that it was on that occasion that he held a conver- 
sation with Dion, who was on the point of attacking Dionysius. 
Moreover, in the first book of the Commentaries of Pharori- 
nus, it is related that Mithri dates, the Persian, erected a statue 
of Plato in the Academy, and put on it this inscription : " Mith- 
ridates, the son of Rhodobates, a Persian, consecrated an 
image of Plato to the Muses, which was made by Silanion." 

Heraclides says, that even while a young man, he was so 
modest and well regulated, that he was never once seen to 
laugh excessively. But though he was of such a grave charac- 



PLATO. 239 

ter himself, he was nevertheless ridiculed by the comic poets. 
Accordingly, Theopompus, in his Pleasure-seeker, says: — 

For one thing is no longer only one, 

But two things now are scarcely one ; as says 

The solemn Plato. 

And Anaxandrides in his Theseus, says: — 

When he ate olives like our worthy Plato. 

And Timon speaks of him in this way, punning on his 
name : — 

As Plato placed strange platitudes on paper. 
Alexis says in his Mesopis : — 

You 've come in time : since I' ve been doubting long, 
And walking up and down some time, like Plato ; 
And yet have hit upon no crafty plan, 
But only tir'd my legs. 

And in his Analion, he says : — 

You speak of what you do not understand, 
Running about like Plato : hoping thus, 
To learn the nature of saltpetre and onions. 

Amphis says in his Amphicrates : — 

But what the good is, which you hope to get 
By means of her, my master, [ no more 
Can form a notion of, than of the good 
Of Plato. 

And in his Dexidemus he speaks thus : — 
O Plato ! how your learning is confined 
To gloomy looks, and wrinkling up your brows 
Like any cockle. 

Oratinas, in his Pseudripobolimseus, says : — 

You clearly are a man, endued with sense, 
And so, as Plato says, I do not know ; 
But I suspect. 

Alexis, in his Olympiodorus, speaks thus : — 

My mortal body became dry and withered : 
But my immortal part rose to the sky. 
Is not this Plato's doctrine ? 



240 PLATO. 

And in his Parasite he says : — 

Or to converse alone, like Plato. 

Anaxilas also laughs at him in his Botrylion, and Circe, 
and his Rich "Women. 

Aristippus, in the fourth book of his treatise upon Ancient 
Luxury, says that he was much attached to a youth of the 
name of Aster, who used to study astronomy with him ; and 
also to Dion, whom we have already mentioned. And some 
say that he was also attached to Phsedrus, and that the follow- 
ing epigrams which he wrote upon them are evidences of the 
love he felt for them : — 

My Aster,* you 're gazing on the stars (asteres), 
Would that 1 were the heavens, that so I might 
Gaze in return with many eyes on thee. 

Another of his epigrams is : — 

Aster, you while among the living shone, 

The morning star. But now that you are dead, 

You beam like Hesperus in the shades below. 

And he wrote thus on Dion : — 

Once, at their birth, the Fates did destine tears 
To be the lot of all the Trojan women, 
And Hecuba, their Queen— to you, O Dion, 
As the deserved reward for glorious deeds, 
They gave extensive and illustrious hopes. 
And now you lie beneath your native soil ; 
Honored by all your countrymen, O Dion, 
And loved by me with ardent, lasting love. 

And they say that this epigram is inscribed upon his tomb 
at Syracuse. They say, also, that he was in love with Alexis, 
and with Phsedrus, as I have already mentioned, and that he 
wrote an epigram on them both, which runs thus : — 

Now when Alexis is no longer aught, 
Say only how beloved, how fair he was, 
And every one does turn his eyes at once. 
Why, my mind, do you show the dogs a bone? 
You 're but preparing trouble for yourself : 
Have we not also lost the lovely Phaedrus 1 



* Aster signifies star. 



PLATO. 241 

There is also a tradition that he had a mistress named Ar- 
chianassa, on whom he wrote the following lines : — 

I have a mistress fair from Colophon, 
Archianassa, on whose very wrinkles 
Sits genial love : hard must have heen the fate 
Of him who met her earliest blaze of beauty, 
Surely he must have been completely scorched. 

He also wrote this epigram on Agathon : — 

While kissing Agathon, my soul did rise, 
And hover'd o'er my lips ; wishing perchance, 
O'er anxious that it was, to migrate to him. 

Another of his epigrams is : — 

I throw this apple to you. And if you 
Love me who love you so, receive it gladly, 
And let me taste your lovely virgin charms. 
Or if that may not be, still take the fruit, 
And in your bosom cherish it, and learn 
How fleeting is all gracefulness and beauty. 

And another : — 

I am an apple, and am thrown to you, 

By one who loves you : but consent, Xanthippe ; 

For you and I shall both with time decay. 

They also attribute to him the following epigram on the 
Eretrians who had been surprised in an ambuscade : — 

We were Eretrians, of Eubaean race ? 
And now we lie near Susa, here entomb'd, 
Far from my native land. 

And this one also : — 

Thus Venus to the muses spoke : 
Damsels submit to Venus' yoke, 

Or dread my Cupid's arms. 
Those threats, the Virgins nine replied, 
May weigh with Mars, but we deride 

Love's wrongs, or darts, or charms. 

Another is :- 

A certain person found some gold, 
Carried it off, and in its stead 
Left a strong halter neatly roll'd. 

21 



242 PLATO. 

The owner found his treasure fled ; 

And powerless to endure his fortune's wreck, 

Fitted the halter to his hapless neck. 

It is said also, that Antisthenes, being about to recite some- 
thing that he had written, invited him to be present ; and that 
Plato having asked what he was going to recite, he said that 
it was an essay on the impropriety of contradicting. " How 
then," said Plato, " can you write on this subject ?" and then 
he showed him that he was arguing in a circle. But Antis- 
thenes was annoyed, and composed a dialogue against Plato, 
which he entitled Sothon ; after which they were always 
enemies to one another ; and they say that Socrates having 
heard Plato read the Lysis, said, " O Hercules ! what a number 
of lies the young man has told about me." For he had set 
down a great many things as sayings of Socrates which he 
never said. 

Pharorinus says, when Plato read his treatise on the Soul, 
Aristotle was the only person who sat it out, and that all the 
rest rose up and went away. And some say that Philip the 
Opuntian copied out the whole of his books upon Laws, which 
were written on waxen tablets only. 

A story is told, that Plato, having seen a man playing at 
dice, reproached him for it, and that he said he was playing 
for a trifle : " But the habit," rejoined Plato, " is not a trifle." 
On one occasion he was asked whether there would be any 
monument of him, as of his predecessors in philosophy ? and he 
answered, " A man must first make a name, and the monu- 
ment will follow." Once, when Xenocrates came into his 
house, he desired him to scourge one of his slaves for him, for 
that he himself could not do it because he was in a passion ; 
and that at another time he said to one of his slaves, "I should 
beat you if I were not in a passion." Having got on horse- 
back he dismounted again immediately, saying that he was 
afraid that he should be infected with horse-pride. He used 
to advise people who got drunk to look in the glass, and then 



PLATO. 243 

they would abandon their unseemly habit ; and he said it was 
never decorous to drink to the degree of drunkenness, except 
at the festivals of the God who had given men wine. He also 
disapproved of much sleeping: accordingly, in his Laws he 
says, wi No one while sleeping is good for anything." Another 
saying of his was, " That the pleasantest of all things to hear 
was the truth ;" but others report this saying thus, u That the 
sweetest of all things was to speak truth." And of truth he 
speaks thus in his Laws : " Truth, my friend, is a beautiful and 
a durable thing ; but it is not easy to persuade men of this fact." 

He used also to wish to leave a memorial of himself behind, 
either in the hearts of his friends, or in his books. He also 
used to travel a good deal, as some authors inform us. 

He died in the thirteenth year of the reign of Philip of 
Macedon ; and Theopompus relates that Philip on one occasion 
reproached him. But Mysonianus, in his Eesemblances. says 
that Philo mentions some proverbs that were in circulation 
about Plato's lice : implying that he had died of that disease. 

He was buried in the Academy, where he spent the greater 
part of his time in the practice of philosophy, from which his 
was called the Academic school; and his funeral was attended 
by all the pupils of that sect. He made his will in the follow- 
ing terms : — " Plato left these things, and has bequeathed 
them as follows : — The farm in the district of the Hephsestia- 
des, bounded on the north by the road from the temple of the 
Cephiciades, and on the south by the temple of Hercules, 
which i3 in the district of the Hephsestiades ; and on the east 
by the estate of Archestratus the Phreanian, and on the west 
by the farm of Philip the Challidian, shall be incapable of 
being sold or alienated, but shall belong to my son Ademantus 
as far as possible. And so likewise shall my farm in the dis- 
trict Of the Eiresides, which I bought of Callimachus, which 
is bounded on the north by the property of Eurymedon the 
Myrrhinusian, on the south by that of Demostratus of Xypeta, 
on the east by that of Eurymedon the Myrrhinusian, and on 



244 PLATO. 

the west by the Oephisus ; — I also leave him three minse of 
silver, a silver goblet weighing a hundred and sixty-five 
drachms, a cup weighing forty-five drachms, a golden ring and 
a golden ear-ring, weighing together four drachms and three 
obols. Euclides the stone-cutter owes me three minse. I leave 
Diana her liberty. My slaves Sychon, Bictas, Apolloniades, 
and Dionysius, I bequeath to my son ; and I also give him all 
my furniture, of which Demetrius has a catalogue. I owe no "' 
one anything. My executors shall be Tozthenes, Speusippus, 
Demetrius, Hegias, Eurymedon, Oallimachus, and Thrasippus." 
This was his will. And on his tomb the following epigrams 
were inscribed. First of all : — 

Here, first of all men for pure justice famed, 

And moral virtue, Aristocles lies ; 
And if there e'er has lived one truly wise, 

This man was wiser still ; too great for envy. 

A second is : — 

Here in her bosom does the tender earth 
Embrace great Plato's corpse. His soul aloft 

Has ta'en its place among the immortal Gods. 
Ariston's glorious son — whom all good men, 

Though in far countries, held in love and honor, 
Remembering his pure and god-like life. 

"We add the following from Brucker : 

Plato gave early indications of an extensive and original 
genius. While he was young, he was instructed in the rudi- 
ments of letters by the grammarian Dionysius, and trained in 
athletic exercises by Aristo of Argos. He applied, with great 
diligence, to the study and practice of the arts of painting 
and poetry. In the latter he made such proficiency as to 
produce an epic poem, whieh, however, on comparing it with 
Homer, he committed to the flames. At the age of twenty 
years he composed a dramatic piece, which he gave to the 
performers, to be represented upon the stage ; but the day 
before the intended exhibition, happening to attend upon a 



PLATO. 245 

discourse of Socrates, he was captivated by his eloquence, 
and from that moment determined to relinquish all preten- 
sions to poetical distinction, and to turn his ambition into 
the channel of philosophy. He forsook the muses, burned 
his poems, and applied himself wholly to the study of wis- 
dom. 

It is probable that Plato received the first tincture of phi- 
losophy from Cratylus and Hermogenes, who taught the sys- 
tems of Heraclitus and Parmenides. When he was twenty 
years old he became a stated disciple of Socrates, and re- 
mained with him in that relation eight years. During this 
period he frequently displeased the followers of Socrates, and 
sometimes gave Socrates himself occasions of complaint, by 
mixing foreign tenets with those of his master, and grafting 
upon the Socratic system opinions which were taken from 
some other stock. Plato, nevertheless, retained a zealous at- 
tachment to Socrates. When that great and good man was 
summoned before the senate, Plato, as we have seen, under- 
took to ^)lead bis cause, and began a speech in his defence ; 
but the partiality and violence of the judges would not per- 
mit him to proceed. After the condemnation, he presented 
his master with money sufficient to redeem his life, which, 
however, Socrates refused to accept. During his imprison- 
ment, Plato attended him, and was present at a conversation 
which he held with his friends concerning the immortality of 
the soul, the substance of which he afterwards committed to 
writing in the beautiful dialogue entitled Phsedo, not, how- 
ever, without interweaving his own opinions and language. 
Upon the death of his master, he withdrew, with several 
other friends of Socrates, to Megara, where they were hospit- 
ably entertained by Euclid, and remained till the ferment at 
Athens subsided. Under Euclid he studied the art of rea- 
soning, and probably increased his fondness for disputation. 

Desirous of making himself master of all the wisdom and 
learning which the age could furnish, Plato travelled into 
21* 



246 PLATO. 

every country which was so far enlightened as to promise 
him any recompense for his labor. That he might travel 
with safety, he assumed the character of a merchant, and as 
a seller of oil passed through the whole kingdom of Arta- 
xerxes Mnemon. Wherever he came, he obtained informa- 
tion from the Egyptian priests concerning their astronomical 
observations and calculations. " Whilst studious youth," (says 
Valerius Maximus, rather indeed in the style of oratory than ' 
history, for Plato had not instituted his school at Athens) 
" were crowding to Athens from every quarter in search of 
Plato for their master, that philosopher was wandering along 
the winding banks of the Nile, or the vast plains of a barbar- 
ous country, himself a disciple to the old men of Egypt." 

It has been asserted, that it was in Egypt that Plato ac- 
quired- his opinions concerning the origin of the world, and 
learnt the doctrines of transmigration, and the immortality of 
the soul ; but it is more probable that he learned the latter 
doctrine from Socrates, and the former from Pythagoras. It 
is not likely that Plato, in the habit of a merchant, could have 
gained access to the sacred mysteries of Egypt ; for we see, 
in the case of Pythagoras, that the Egyptian priests were so 
unwilling to communicate their secrets to strangers, that even 
a royal mandate was scarcely sufficient, in a single instance, 
to procure this indulgence. 

From the particulars which we have related concerning 
the manner in which Plato acquired his knowledge, we are 
enabled to ascertain with some degree of precision, the 
sources of his philosophy. His dialectics he borrowed from 
Euclid of Megara : the principles of natural philosophy he 
learned in the Eleatic school from Hermogenes and Cratylus ; 
and combining these with the Pythagorean doctrine of natu- 
ral causes, he framed from both his system of metaphysics. 
Mathematics and astronomy he was taught in the Oyrenaic 
school, and by the Egyptian priests. From Socrates he im- 
bibed the pure principles of moral and political wisdom ; but 



PLATO 



24: 



he afterwards obscured their simplicity by Pythagorean spec- 
ulations. • 

Returning home richly stored with knowledge of various 
kinds, Plato settled in Athens, and executed the design. 
which he had doubtless long had in contemplation, of form- 
ing a new school for the instruction of youth in the princi- 
ples of philosophy. The place which he made choice of for 
this purpose was a public grove called the Academy, from 
Academus, who left it to the citizens for the purpose of gym- 
nastic exercises. Adorned with statues, temples, and sepul- 
chres, surrounded with high trees, and intersected by a gen- 
tle stream, it afforded a delightful retreat for philosophy and 
the muses. Of this retreat Horace speaks : 

'Midst Academic groves to search for truth. 

How much Plato valued mathematical studies, and how 
necessary a preparation he thought them for higher specula- 
tions, appears from the inscription which he placed over the 
door of his school : " Let no one, who is unacquainted with 
geometry, enter here." 

This new school soon became famous, and its master was 
ranked among the most eminent philosophers. His travels 
into distant countries, where learning and wisdom flourished, 
gave him celebrity among his brethren of the Socratic sect. 
iNot only did young men crowd to his school from every 
quarter, but people of the first distinction, in every depart- 
ment, frequented the Academy. Even females, disguised in 
a clothes, often attended his lectures. Among the illus- 
trious names which appear in the catalogue of his followers 
arc Dion, the Syracusan prince, and the orators Hyperides, 
Lycurgus, Demosthenes, and Isocrates. 

Such distinguished reputation naturally produced among 
the companions of Plato, formerly the disciples of Socrates, 
a spirit of emulation, which soon degenerated into envy, and 
loaded him with detraction and obloquy. It can only be as- 



248 PLATO. 

oribed to mutual jealousy, that Xenophon aud Plato, though 
they relate the discourses of their common master, studiously 
avoid mentioning one another. Diogenes the Cynic ridiculed 
Plato's doctrine of ideas, and other abstract speculations. In 
the midst of these private censures, however, the public fame 
of Plato daily increased. His political wisdom was in such 
high estimation, that several States solicited his assistance in 
new-modelling their respective forms of government. Appli- 
cations of this kind from the Arcadians, and from the The- 
bans, he rejected, because they refused to adopt the plan of his 
republic, which required an equal distribution of property. 
He gave his advice in the affairs of Elis, and other Grecian 
States, and furnished a code of laws for Syracuse. Plato was 
in high esteem with several princes, particularly Archelaus, 
king of Macedon, and Dionysius, tyrant of Sicily. At three 
different periods he visited the court of this latter prince, and 
made several bold, but unsuccessful attempts to subdue his 
haughty and tyrannical spirit. A brief relation of the par- 
ticulars of these visits to Sicily may serve to cast some light 
upon the character of our philosopher. 

The professed object of Plato's first visit to Sicily, which 
happened in the fortieth year of his age, during the reign of 
the elder Dionysius, the son of Hermocrates, was, to take a 
survey of the island, and particularly to observe the wonders 
of Mount JEtna. Whilst he was resident at Syracuse, he was 
employed in the instruction of Dion, the king's brother-in- 
law, who possessed excellent abilities, though hitherto re- 
strained by the terrors of a tyrannical government, and relaxed 
by the luxuries of a licentious court. Disgusted by the de- 
bauched manners of the Syracusans, he endeavored to rescue 
his pupil from the general depravity. Nor did Dion disap- 
point his preceptor's expectations. No sooner had he received 
a taste of that philosophy which leads to virtue than he was 
fired with an ardent love of wisdom. Entertaining a hope 
that philosophy might produce the same effect upon Dionysius, 



PLATO, 249 

he took great pains to procure an interview between Plato 
and the tyrant. In the course of the conference, whilst Plato 
was discoursing on the security and happiness of virtue, and 
the miseries attending injustice and oppression, Dionysius, 
perceiving that the philosopher's discourse was levelled against, 
the vices and cruelties of his reign, dismissed him with high 
displeasure from his presence, and conceived a design against 
his life. It was not without great difficulty that Plato, by the 
assistance of Dion, made his escape. A vessel which had 
brought over Pollis, a delegate from Sparta, was fortunately 
at that time returning to Greece. Dion engaged Pollis to 
take the charge of the philosopher, and land him safely in his 
native country ; but Dionysius discovered the design, and ob- 
tained a promise from Pollis that he would either put him to 
death, or sell him as a slave upon the passage. Pollis, accord- 
ingly, sold him in the island of iEgina, the inhabitants of 
which were then at war with the Athenians. Plato could 
not long remain unnoticed : Anicerris, a Cyrenaic philosopher, 
who happened to be at that time in the island, discovered the 
stranger, and thought himself happy in an opportunity of 
showing his respect for so illustrious a philosopher ; he 
purchased his freedom for thirty minte, and sent him home to 
Athens. Repayment being afterwards offered to Anicerris 
by Plato's relations, he refused the money, saying, with that 
generous spirit which true philosophy always inspires, that he 
saw no reason why the relations of Plato should engross to 
themselves the honor of serving him. 

After a short interval, Dionysius repented of his ill-placed 
resentment, and wrote to Plato, earnestly requesting him to 
repair his credit by returning to Syracuse ; to which Plato gave 
this high-spirited answer, that philosophy would not allow 
him leisure to think of Dionysius. Dion, who, through the in- 
fluence of Plato's instructions, had become a determined vota- 
ry of virtue, was earnestly desirous of inspiring others with 
the same sentiments. In hope of making an advantageous 



250 PLATO. 

impression upon the mind of the younger Dionysius, he took 
every occasion of making him acquainted with the doctrines and 
precepts of his master. The effect was such as Dion wished — 
the youth soon expressed an earnest desire to became acquaint- 
ed with the philosopher. Letters were immediately despatched 
to Plato, from the tyrant, from Dion, and from several followers 
of Pythagoras, who were at that time resident in Sicily, impor- 
tuning him to return to Syracuse, and take upon him the educa- 
cation of the young prince. After some hesitation, apprehend- 
ing lest a refusal might seem to imply an unworthy neglect 
of the interest of philosophy, and entertaining some hope, 
that by cleansing the fountain of public manners in Sicily, he 
should be able to purify the stream, he consented. It has also 
been said, and not without plausibility, that he was induced 
to undertake this second journey to Syracuse by a promise, 
on the part of Dionysius, that he would adopt the philosopher's 
plan of government. In the meantime, the enemies of Dion 
prevailed upon Dionysius to recall from exile Philistus, a man 
of tyrannical principles and spirit, from whom they hoped for 
a powerful opposition to the doctrine and the measures of 
Plato. The philosopher was conducted to Syracuse with pub- 
lic honors ; the king himself received him in his chariot, and 
sacrifices were offered in congratulation of his arrival. New 
regulations were immediately introduced ; the licentiousness 
of the court was restrained ; moderation reigned in all public 
festivals ; the king assumed an air of benignity ; philosophy 
was studied by his courtiers ; and every good man assured 
himself of a happy revolution in the state of public manners. 
But Philistus and his adherents, envious of the philosopher's 
increasing influence with the tyrant, soon found means to re- 
kindle his jealousy. Through their intrigues, Dion became 
so obnoxious to Dionysius, that he ordered him to be im- 
prisoned, and afterwards banished him into Italy. Plato, and 
the friends of Dion, were exceedingly alarmed at this measure, 
and began to be apprehensive for their own safety. Dionysius, 



PLATO. 251 

however, continued to treat them courteously. Under the 
pretence of friendship, he allotted Plato an apartment in his 
palace, but at the same time placed a secret guard about him, 
that no one might visit him without his knowledge. At 
length, upon the commencement of a war, Dionysius sent 
Plato back into his own country, but not without a promise 
that he would recall both him and Dion upon the return of peace. 

Dion, who now resided in Athens, diligently attended upon 
the lectures of his master, and so far profited by his moral pre- 
cepts, as to lay aside everything effeminate and luxurious in 
his manner of living. The tyrant, in the meantime, that he 
might, if possible, obliterate the ignominy which he had 
brought upon himself by the banishment of Plato, invited 
philosophers from every quarter to his court. Their discourses 
recalled his attention to philosophy, and he again became ex- 
ceedingly desirous of Plato's return. The philosopher received 
his solicitations with coolness, pleaded in excuse his advanced 
age, and reminded the tyrant of the violation of his promise, 
that on the return of peace Dion should be restored. It was 
not till the request of Dionysius was seconded by the intreaties 
of the wife and sister of Dion, and by the importunities of 
Archytas of Tarentum, and other Pythagorean philosophers, to 
whom the tyrant had pledged himself for the performance of 
his promises, that he could be prevailed upon to return. 

When Plato arrived the third time at Syracuse, the king 
met him in a magnificent chariot, and conducted him to his 
palace. The Sicilians, too, whose hatred of Philistus inclined 
them to favor the party of Dion, rejoiced in his return, for they 
hoped that the wisdom of Plato would at length triumph over 
the tyrannical spirit of the prince. Dionysius seemed wholly 
divested of his former resentments, listened with apparent 
pleasure to the philosopher's doctrine, and, among other ex- 
pressions of regard, presented him with eighty talents of gold. 
In the midst of a numerous train of philosophers, Plato now 
possessed the chief influence and authority in the court of Syr : 
20* 



252 PLATO. 

acuse. Whilst Aristippus was enjoying himself in splendid 
luxury, whilst Diogenes was freely indulging his acrimonious 
humor, and whilst iEschines was gratifying his thirst after 
riches, Plato supported the credit of philosophy with an air 
of dignity, which his friends regarded as an indication of su- 
perior wisdom, hut which his enemies imputed to pride. After 
all, it was not in the power of Plato to prevail upon Dionysius 
to adopt his system of policy, or to recall Dion from his exile. 
Mutual distrust, after a short interval, arose between the ty- 
rant and the philosopher ; each suspected the other of evil de- 
signs, and each endeavored to conceal his suspicion under the 
disguise of respect. Dionysius attempted to impose upon Plato 
by condescending attentions, and Plato to deceive Dionysius 
by an appearance of confidence. At length the philosopher 
became so much dissatisfied with his situation, that he earnest- 
ly requested permission to return to Greece. 

After some opposition on the part of the tyrant, permission 
was granted and a vessel of convoy was provided. But before 
the ship set sail Dionysius repented, and detained Plato in 
Syracuse against his inclination. From this time the freedom 
of the philosopher's complaints and reproofs became offensive 
to the tyrant, and Dionysius dismissed Plato from his court, 
and put him under a guard of soldiers, whom false rumors had 
incensed against him. His Pythagorean friends at Tarentum, 
being informed of his dangerous situation, immediately de- 
spatched an embassy to Dionysius, demanding an instant com- 
pletion of his promise to Archytas. The tyrant, not daring to 
refuse this demand, but at the same time desirous to save him- 
self, as much as possible, from the disgrace of having banished 
from his court the first philosopher of the age, gave Plato 
a magnificent entertainment, and sent him away loaded with 
rich presents. On his way to Athens, passing through Elis 
during the celebration of the Olympic games, he was present 
at this general assembly of the Greeks, and engaged universal 
attention. 



PLATO. 253 

From this narrative it appears, that if Plato visited the 
courts of princes, it was chiefly from the hope of seeing his 
ideal plan of a republic realized ; and that his talents and at- 
tainments rather qualified him to shine in the academy than 
in the council or the senate. 

Plato, now restored to his country and his school, devoted 
himself to science, and spent the last years of a long life in 
the instruction of youth. Having enjoyed the advantage of an 
athletic constitution, and lived all his days temperately, he ar- 
rived at the eighty-first, or according to some writers, the 
seventy -niuth year of his age, and died, through the mere 
decay of nature, in the first year of the hundred and eighth 
Olympiad. He passed his whole life in a state of celibacy, 
and therefore left no natural heirs, but transferred his effects 
by will to his friend Adimantus. The grove and garden, 
which had been the scene of his philosophical labors, at last 
afforded him a sepulchre. Statues and altars were erected to 
his memory; the day of his birth long continued to be cele- 
brated as a festival by his followers ; and his portrait is to this 
day preserved in gems ; but the most lasting monuments of his 
genius are his writings, which have been transmitted, without 
material injury, to the present times. 

The personal character of Plato has been very differently 
represented. On the one hand, his encomiasts have not failed 
to adorn him with every excellence, and to express the most 
superstitious veneration for his memory. His enemies, on the 
other, have not scrupled to load him with reproach, and 
charge him with practices shamefully inconsistent with the 
purity and dignity of the philosophical character. 

Several anecdotes are preserved, which reflect honor upon 
the moral principles and character of Plato. Such was his 
command of temper that, when he was lifting up his hand to 
correct his servant for some offence, perceiving himself angry, 
he kept his arm fixed in that posture, and said to a friend, who, 
coming in that instant, asked him what he was doing, u I am 

22 



254 PLINY THE ELDER. 

punishing a passionate man." At the Olympic games he 
happened to pass a day with some strangers, who were much 
delighted with his easy and affable conversation, but were no 
farther informed concerning him than that his name was Plato ; 
for he had purposely avoided saying anything concerning Soc- 
rates or the Academy. At parting, he invited them, when 
they should visit Athens, to take up their residence at his 
house. Not long afterwards they accepted his invitation, and 
were courteously entertained. During their stay they request- 
ed that he would introduce them to his namesake, the famous 
philosopher, and show them his Academy. Plato, smiling, 
said, "I am the person you wish to see." The discovery sur- 
prised them exceedingly ; for they could not easily persuade 
themselves that so eminent a philosopher would condescend to 
converse so familiarly with strangers. When Plato was told 
that his enemies were busily employed in circulating reports 
to his disadvantage, he said, "I will live so, that none shall 
believe them." One of his friends remarking, that he seemed 
as desirous to learn himself, as to teach others, asked him how 
long he intended to be a scholar? "As long," said he, "as 
I am not ashamed to grow wiser and better." 



PLINY THE ELDER 



Caius Plinius Secundus, called Pliny the Elder, to dis- 
tinguish him from his nephew Cains . Plinius Csecilius, was 
born in the reign of Tiberius, about the year twenty-three, 
and is commonly said to have been a native of Verona. In 
his youth, he took upon him the military character, and 
served in the army in the German war ; but he soon turned 
the course of his ambition into the channel of learning, and 
by the indefatigable use of excellent talents acquired exten- 
sive and profound erudition. During the life of Nero his 



P L I X Y 



HE E L D E R . 255 



dread of the savage spirit of that tyrant induced him to pros- 
ecute his studies in private. Towards the close of the reign 
of that emperor, he wrote a political work on ambiguity of 
expression. Under the more favorable auspices of Vespasian, 
the superior abilities of Pliny had an opportunity of display- 
ing themselves, not only in literary speculations, but in pub- 
lic affairs ; for that emperor admitted him to his confidence, 
and employed him in important posts. In the midst of in- 
numerable avocations, he prosecuted Ms studies with a de- 
gree of industry and perseverance scarcely to be paralleled. 
What his nephew relates on this head must not be omitted. 
After enumerating his writings, he says : 

" You will wonder how a man of business could find time 
to write so much, and often upon such difficult subjects. You 
will be still more surprised when you are informed, that for 
some time he engaged in the profession of an advocate ; that 
he died in his fifty-sixth year ; and that, from the time of his 
quitting the bar to his death, he was busily occupied in the 
execution of the highest posts, and in the service of his 
prince. But he had a quick apprehension, joined to unwea- 
ried application. "In summer he always began his studies as 
soon as it was night; in winter, generally at one in the 
morning, but never later than two, and sometimes at mid- 
night. He slept little, and this often without retiring to his 
chamber. After a short and light repast at noon, according 
to the custom of our ancestors, he would frequently, in sum- 
mer, if he was disengaged from business, recline in the sun : 
some author, in the meantime, being read to him, from which 
he made extracts and observations. This indeed was his 
constant practice in reading ; for he used to say, that no 
book was so bad, but something might be learned from it. 
When this was over, he commonly went into the cold bath", 
and as soon as he came out of it, took a slight refreshment, 
and then reposed himself for a short time. After which, as 
if it had been a new day, he resumed his studies till supper 



256 PLINY THE ELDER. 

time, when a book was again read to him, upon which he 
made some cursory remarks. In summer, he rose from sup- 
per by day-light, and in winter, as soon as it was dark, and 
this was an invariable rule with him. Such was his manner 
of life, amidst the noise and hurry of the town. But in the 
country, his whole time was devoted to study. Even in the 
bath, while he was rubbed and wiped, either some book was 
read to him, or he dictated himself. When he was travelling, 
he attended to no other object. A secretary constantly at- 
tended him in his chariot. For the same reason he was 
always, at Rome, conveyed from one place to another in a 
chair. I remember he once reproved me for walking : ' You 
need not,' says he, 'lose so much time :' for he thought all 
time lost, which was not devoted to study. It was this in- 
tense application which enabled my uncle to write so many 
volumes, besides a hundred and sixty, which he left me, con- 
taining extracts and observations, written in a very small 
character." 

Out of all the rich fruits of Pliny's industry, one work only 
has escaped the ravages of time, his " Natural History of the 
World :" a valuable treasury of ancient knowledge ; con- 
cerning which, notwithstanding all its errors and extrava- 
gancies, we do not scruple, with some allowance for rhetori- 
cal decoration, to subscribe to the judgment of the Younger 
Pliny, who calls it " a comprehensive and learned work 
scarcely less various than Nature herself." 

The insatiable desire which this philosopher always discov- 
ered to become acquainted with the wonders of Nature at last 
proved fatal to him. An eruption of the volcano of Mount Ve- 
uvius happening while Pliny lay with the fleet under his com- 
mand, at Misenum, his curiosity induced him to approach so 
near to the mountain, that he was suffocated by the gross and 
noxious vapors which it sent forth. An interesting account 
of this tragical event is given by Pliny the Younger. It hap- 
pened in the year 79. 



P O L E M o . 257 



POLEMO. 

Polemo was an Athenian of distinction, who in his youth 
had heen addicted to infamous pleasures. The manner in 
which he was reclaimed from his licentious course of life, and 
"brought under the discipline of philosophy, affords a memor- 
able example of the power of eloquence when it is employed 
in the cause of virtue. As he was one morning, about the 
rising of the sun, returning home from the revels of the 
night, clad in a loose robe, crowned with garlands, strongly 
perfumed, and intoxicated with wine, he passed by the school 
of Xenocrates, and saw him surrounded with his disciples. 
Unable to resist so fortunate an opportunity of indulging 
his sportive humor, he rushed, without ceremony, into the 
school, and took his place among the philosophers. The 
whole assembly was astonished at this rude and indecent 
intrusion, and all but Xenocrates discovered signs of resent- 
ment. Xenocrates, however, preserved the perfect command 
of his countenance, and, with great presence of mind, turned 
his discourse from the subject on which he was treating to 
the topics of temperance and modesty, which he recom- 
mended with such strength of argument, and energy of 
language, that Polemo was constrained to yield to the force 
of conviction. Instead of turning the philosopher and his 
doctrine to ridicule, as he at first intended, he became sensible 
of the folly of his former conduct, was heartily ashamed of 
the contemptible figure which he made in so respectable an 
assembly, took his garland from his head, concealed his naked 
arm under his cloak, assumed a sedate and thoughtful aspect, 
and, in short, resolved from that hour to relinquish his licen- 
tious pleasures, and devote himself to the pursuit of wisdom. 
Thus was this young man, by the powerful energy of truth 
and eloquence, in an instant converted from an infamous lib- 
ertine to a respectable philosopher. In such a sudden change 
of character it is difficult to avoid passing from one extreme 
22* 



258 



P OLE M O 



to another. Polemo, after his reformation, in order to brace 
up his niincf to the tone of rigid virtue, constantly practiced 
the severest austerity and most hardy fortitude. From the 
thirtieth year of his age till his death he drank nothing but 
water. "When he suffered violent pain, he showed no external 
sign of anguish. In order to preserve his mind undisturbed 
by passion, he habituated himself to speak in an uniform tone 
of voice, without elevation or depression. The austerity of 
his manners was, however, tempered with urbanity and gen- 
erosity. He was fond of solitude, and passed much of his 
time in a garden near his school. He died at an advanced 
age, of consumption. 

Diogenes Laertius says of him, that after his reformation 
he always continued the same in appearance and never even 
changed his voice, on which account, Oranton was charmed 
by him. Accordingly on one occasion, when a dog was mad 
and had bitten his leg, he was the only person who did not 
turn pale ; and once, when there was a great confusion in the 
city, he, having heard the cause, remained where he was 
without fleeing. In the theatres too, he was quite immov- 
able ; accordingly, when Mcostratus the poet was once reading 
something to him and Crates, and the latter was excited to 
sympathy, he behaved as though he heard nothing. 

He was a well-bred and high-spirited man, avoiding what 
Aristophanes says of Euripides, speeches of vinegar and assa- 
foetida, such as he says himself: — 

Are base delights compared with better things ! 

He was accustomed to lecture and discuss propositions not 
sitting, but Whilst walking. He was much honored because 
of his noble sentiments. After he had been walking about, 
he would rest in his garden ; and his pupils erected little 
cabins near it, and dwelt near his school and corridor. He 
left behind him a great number of writings. And there is 
this epigram of ours upon him : — 



proclus. 259 

Do you not hear, we 've buried Polemo, 
Whom sickness, worst affliction of mankind, 
Attacked, and bore off to the shades below ; 
Yet Polemo lies not here, but Polemo's body, 
And that he did himself place here on earth, 
Prepared in soul to mount up to the skies. 



PROCLUS. 



Peocixs, according to his biographer Marinus, was a na- 
tive of Constantinople, and was born in the year four hun- 
dred and twelve. His parents having been inhabitants of 
Xanthus in Lycia, he is commonly spoken of as a Lycian. 
He received the first rudiments of learning at Xanthus, and 
afterwards studied eloquence and polite literature under Isau- 
rus at Alexandria, with a view to qualify himself for the pro- 
fession of the law. This design, however, he soon relin- 
quished, and wholly devoted himself to philosophy. From 
Olympiodorus he learned the Aristotleian system combined 
with the Platonic ; and he was instructed in Mathematics by 
Hero. His facility of conception and strength of memory 
were such, that when his master's lectures, through the ra- 
pidity of his utterance, or the abstruse nature of his subject, 
were not clearly understood by the rest of the pupils, he was 
able to give an accurate summary of the arguments, in the or- 
der in which they had been delivered ; a circumstance which 
gained him great credit and esteem among his fellow-stu- 
dents. 

Having spent several years in the Alexandrian schools, 
Proclus determined to visit Athens. Here he first became 
acquainted with Syrian, who introduced him to Plutarch the 
son of Nestorius. The old man was delighted with the at- 
tainments of this young stranger, and undertook to conduct 
him into the more recondite mysteries of philosophy. Plu- 
tarch, dying two years afterwards, left Proclus to the care of 



260 PEOCLUS. 

his successor, Syrian, under whose direction the young man 
prosecuted his studies with indefatigable industry. He 
reaped great benefit from the practice recommended to him 
by Plutarch, of writing, from his own recollection, compend- 
ious abridgements of the lectures which he had heard from 
his preceptor. At the age of twenty-eight, he had written, 
besides many other pieces, his " Commentary on the Timasus of 
Plato," full of that kind of learning which at this time pre- 
vailed in the Platonic schools. In order to reach the point, 
which was in these schools esteemed the summit of wisdom, 
Proclus diligently studied the. theology of the sect, both that 
which respects the contemplation of the Supreme Deity, and 
that which was supposed to lead to an intercourse with infe- 
rior divinities. He was instructed in the Chaldean arts of di- 
vination, and in the use of mystical words, and other charms, 
by Plutarch's daughter, Asclepigenia, who inherited from her 
father many secrets of this kind. He was also initiated into 
the Eleusinian mysteries. By these helps, and by diligent 
study of the writings of Plotinus, Porphyry, and Jamblicus, 
he became, if Marinus may be credited, a complete master, 
not only of divine science, but of theurgic powers. 

Thus accomplished, Proclus was judged by Syrian worthy to 
share with him the honors and profits of the Platonic chair. 
And there can be no doubt, after what has been related, that 
he was eminently qualified for the office of preceptor in 
the Alexandrian philosophy. His biographer may be easily 
credited when he asserts, that Proclus excelled all his pred- 
ecessors in the knowledge of this system, and that he im- 
proved it by many new dicoveries, and was the author of 
many opinions which had never before entered into the 
mind of man, both on the subject of physics, and in the sub- 
lime science of Ideas. The lectures which Proclus delivered 
in his school were obscure and enthusiastic ; but they suited 
the genius and taste of the age, and he had many followers. 

The piety of Proclus is highly extolled by his biographer. 



PROTAGORAS. 261 

* 

Of what sort it was may be learned from the superstitious 
manner in which he conducted his devotions. Besides his 
general abstinence from animal food, in which lie followed 
the Pythagorean discipline, he often practiced rigorous fast- 
ings ; and he spent whole days and nights in repeating prayers 
and hymns, that he might prepare himself for immediate 
intercourse with the gods. He observed with great solem- 
nity the new moons and all public festivals, and on these oc- 
casions pretended, or fancied, that he conversed with superior 
beings, and was able by his sacrifices, prayers, and hymns, 
to expel diseases, to command rain, to stop an earthquake, and 
to perform other similar wonders. Marinus does not scruple 
to assert that, on these occasions, Proclus partook of divine 
inspiration, and that a celestial glory irradiated his counte- 
nance. He even relates, that God himself appeared to him 
in a human form, and with an audible voice hailed him as the 
glory of the city. In his old age his mental infirmities, as 
might naturally be expected, increased with those of his body ; 
and he fancied, between sleeping and waking (the season in 
which these visions commonly happen), that Esculapius ap- 
proached him in the form of a dragon, and relieved his pain. 
Without attempting accurately to determine how much of 
these tales is to be ascribed to the invention of Marinus, and 
how much to the fanaticism of his master, we may perceive 
in them proofs of superstitious weakness, of artful hypocrisy, 
or of a strange union of both, abundantly sufficient to justify 
us in ranking Proclus among enthusiasts or impostors, rather 
than among philosophers. 



PROTAGORAS. 



Pkotagoeas of Abdera, was the most celebrated disciple of 
Democritus. In his youth his poverty obliged him to per- 
form the servile offices of a porter, and he a. as frequently em- 



262 PROTAGORAS. 

ployed in carrying logs of wood from the neighboring fields 
to Abdera. It happened, that as lie was one day going on 
briskly towards the city under one of those loads, he was met 
by Democritus, who was particularly struck with the neat- 
ness and regularity of the bundle. Desiring him to stop and 
rest himself, Democritus examined more closely the structure 
of the load, and found that it was put together with math- 
ematical exactness ; upon which he asked the youth whether 
he himself had made it up. The youth assured him that he 
had, and immediately took it to pieces, and with great ease 
replaced every log in the same exact order as before. Democ- 
ritus expressed much admiration of his ingenuity, and said 
to him, " Young man, follow me, and your talents shall be 
employed upon greater and better things." The youth con- 
sented, and Democritus took him home, maintained him at 
his own expense, and taught him philosophy. 

Protagoras afterward acquired reputation at Athens, among 
the sophists for his eloquence, and among the philosophers for 
his wisdom. His public lectures were frequented, and he 
had many disciples, from whom he received the most liberal 
rewards; so that, as Plato relates, he became exceedingly 
rich. At length, however, he brought upon himself the dis- 
pleasure of the Athenian state, by teaching doctrines favor- 
able to impiety. In one of his books he said, " Concerning the 
gods, I am wholly unable to determine whether they have any 
existence or not ; for the weakness of the human undefstand- 
ing, and the shortness of human life, with many other causes, 
prevent us from attaining this knowledge." On account of 
this and several other similar expressions, his writings were 
ordered to be diligently collected by the common crier, and 
burnt in the market-place, and he himself was banished from 
Attica. He wrote many pieces upon logic, metaphysics, 
ethics, and politics, none of which are at present extant. 
After having lived many years in Epirus, he was lost by sea 
on his passage from that country to Sicily. 



P TRRH 



PYKEHO. 



Pteeho was a citizen of Elis and the son of Pleistarchns. 
He was originally a painter. He asserted that there was no 
such thing as downright truth, but that men did everything in 
consequence of custom and law. His life corresponded to his 
principles ; for he never shunned anything and never guarded 
against anything, encountering everything, even waggons, 
prcipices, dogs, and things of that sort, committing nothing 
whatever to his senses. So that he used to be saved by his 
friends who accompanied him. He stndied philosophy on the 
principle of suspending his judgment on all points. He used 
to walk out into the fields and seek solitary places, very rarely 
appearing to his family at Rome ; and he did this in conse- 
quence of having heard some Indian reproaching Anaxarchns 
for never teaching any one else any good, but for devoting all 
his time to paying court to princes in palaces. He relates of 
him too, that he always maintained the same demeanor, so 
that if any one left him in the middle of his delivery of a dis- 
course, he remained and continued what he was saying; al- 
though, when a young man, he was of a very excitable tem- 
perament. Often too, says Antigonus, he would go away for 
a time, without telling any one beforehand, and taking any 
chance persons whom he chose for his companions. And 
once, when Anaxarchns had fallen into a pond, he passed by 
without assisting him : and when some one blamed him for 
this, Anaxarchns himself praised his indifference and absence 
of all emotion. 

On one occasion he was detected talking to himself, and 
when he was asked the reason, he said that he was studying 
how to be good. In his investigations he was never despised 
by any one, because he always spoke explicitly and straight to 
the question that had been put to him. On which account 
Nausiphanes was charmed by him even -when he was quite 



264 PYRRHO. 

young. And he used to say that he should like to be endowed 
with the disposition of Pyrrho, without losing his own power 
of eloquence. And he said too, that Epicurus, who admired 
the conversation and manner of Pyrrho, was frequently asking 
him about him. 

He was so greatly honored by his country, that he was ap- 
pointed a priest ; and on this account all the philosophers 
were exempted from taxation. He had a great many imita- 
tors of his impassiveness ; in reference to which Timon speaks 
thus of him in his Python, and in his Silli : — 

Now, you old man, you Pyrrho, how could you 
Find an escape from all the slavish doctrines 
And vain imaginations of the Sophists ? 
How did you free yourself from all the bonds 
Of sly chicane, and artful deep persuasion ? 
How came you to neglect what sort of breeze 
Blows round your Greece, and what 's the origin 
And end of everything ? 

And again, in his Images, he says : — 

These things, my heart, O Pyrrho, longs to hear, 
How you enjoy such ease of life and quiet, 
The only man as happy as a God. 

The Athenians presented him with the freedom of their 
city, as Diodes tells us, because he had slain Cotys, the Thra- 
cian. 

He also lived in a most blameless manner with his sister, 
who was a midwife, as Eratosthenes relates, in his treatise on 
Riches and Poverty ; so that he himself used to carry poultry, 
and pigs too if he could get any, into the market place and sell 
them. He used to clean all the furniture of the house without 
expressing any annoyance. It is said that he carried his indif- 
ference so far that he even washed a pig. Once, when he was 
very angry about something connected with his sister (and her 
name was Philista), and some one took him up, he said, u The 
display of my indifference does not depend on a woman." On 
another occasion, when he was driven back by a dog which 



PYRRHO. 205 

was attacking him, he said to some one who blamed him for 
being discomposed, u That it was a difficult thing entirely to 
put off humanity ; but that a man ought to strive with all his 
power to counte7 % act circumstances with his actions if possible, 
and at all events with his reason." They also tell a story that 
once, when some medicines of a consuming tendency, and 
some cutting and cautery was applied to him for some wound, 
that he never even contracted his brow. Timon intimates his 
disposition plainly enough in the letters which he wrote to 
Python. Moreover, Philo, the Athenian, who was a friend of 
his, said that he was especially fond of Democritus ; and next 
to him of Homer ; whom he admired greatly, and was con- 
tinually saying : — 

But as the race of falling leaves decay, 
Such is the fate of man. 

He used also, as it is said, to compare men to wasps, and flies, 
and birds, and to quote the following lines :— 

Die then," my friend, what boots it to deplore ? 
The great, the good Patroclus is no more. 
He, far thy better, was foredoom'd to die ; 
And thou, doest thou bewail mortality ? 

And so he would quote anything that bore on the uncer- 
tainty and emptiness and fickleness of the affairs of man. Posi- 
donius tells the following anecdote about him : that when 
some people who were sailing with him were looking gloomy 
because of a storm, he kept a calm countenance, and comfort- 
ed their minds, exhibiting himself on deck eating a pig, and 
saying that it became a wise man to preserve an untroubled 
spirit in that manner. 

He had many eminent disciples, and among them Euryl- 
ochus, of whom the following defective characteristic is re- 
lated ; for, they say, that he was once worked up to such a 
pitch of rage that he took up a spit with the meat on it, and 
chased the cook as far as the market-place. And once in 
Elis he was so harassed by some people who put questions to 
23 



266 PYERHO. 

him in the middle of his discourses, that lie threw down his 
cloak and swam across the Alpheus. He was the greatest 
possible enemy to the Sophists, as Timon tells us. But Philo, 
on the contrary, was very fond of arguing ; on which account 
Timon speaks of him thus : — 

Avoiding men to study all devoted, 

He ponders with himself; and never heeds 

The glory or disputes which harass Philo. 

All these men were called Pyrrhoneans from their master ; 
and also doubters, and sceptics, and ephectics, or suspenders 
of their judgment, and investigators, from their principles. 
And their philosophy was called investigatory, from their in- 
vestigating or seeking the truth on all sides ; and sceptical 
from their being always doubting (sJceptemai), and never find- 
ing ; and ephectic, from the disposition which they encouraged 
after investigation, I mean the suspending of their judgment 
(epoche) ; and doubting, because they asserted that the dog- 
matic philosophers only doubted, and that they did the same. 

Some say that Homer was the original founder of this 
school ; since he at different times gives different accounts of 
the same circumstance, as much as any one else ever did ; and 
since he never dogmatizes definitively respecting affirmation ; 
they also say that the maxims of the seven wise men were 
sceptical ; such as that, " Seek nothing in excess," and that 
" Suretyship is near calamity ;" which shows that calamity 
follows a man who has given positive and certain surety ; 
they also argue that Archilochus and Euripides were Sceptics ; 
and Archilochus speaks thus : — 

And now, O Glaucus, son of Leptines, 

Such is the mind of mortal man, which changes 

With every day that Jupiter doth send. 

And Euripides says: — 

Why then do men assert that wretched mortals 
Are with true wisdom gifted ; for on you 
We all depend ; and we do everything 
Which pleases you. 



PYRRHO. 267 

Moreover, Xenophane?, and Zeno the Eleatic, and Democritus 
were also Sceptics ; of whom Xenophanes speaks thns : — 

And no man knows distinctly anything, 
And no man ever will. 

Zeno endeavors to put an end to the doctrine of motion by 
saying : " The object moved does not move either in the place 
in which it is, or in that in which it is not." Democritus, too, 
discards the qualities, where he says : • i What is cold is cold in. 
opinion, and what is hot is hot in opinion ; but atoms and the 
vacuum exist in reality." And again he says : u Bat we know 
nothing really ; for Lruth lies in the bottom." Plato, too, fol- 
lowing them, attributes the knowledge of the truth to the 
Gods and to the sons of the Gods, and leaves men only the 
investigation of probability. And Euripides says : — 

Who now can tell whether to lire may not 
Be properly to die. And whether that 
Which men do call to die, may not in truth 
Be but the entrance into real life ? 

Empedocies speaks thus : — 

These things are not perceptible to sight, 
Nor to the ears, nor comprehensible 
To human intellect. 

In a preceding passage he says : — 

Believing nothing, but such circumstances 
As have befallen each. 

Heraclitus, too, says, "Let us not form conjectures at 
random, about things of the greatest importance." And Hip- 
pocrates delivers his opinion in a very doubtful manner, such 
as becomes a man ; and before them all Homer has said : — 

Long in the field of words we may contend, 
Reproach is infinite and knows no end. 

And immediately after : — 

Armed, or with truth or falsehood, right or wrong, 
(So voluble a weapon is the tongue), 
Wounded we wound, and neither side can fail, 
For every man has equal strength to rail : 



268 PYTHAGORAS. 

Intimating the equal vigor and antethetical force of words. 
And the Sceptics persevered in overthrowing all the dogmas 
of every sect, while they themselves asserted nothing dog- 
matically ; and contented themselves with expressing the 
opinions of others, without affirming anything themselves, not 
even that they did affirm nothing. 



PYTHAGOKAS 



There is a great uncertainty as to the parentage, the birth- 
place, and the time of the birth of Pythagoras. 

The account of Diogenes Laertius is that he was a pupil of 
Pherecydes and after his deatb, of Hermodamas. 

As he was a young man, devoted to learning, he quitted 
his country and got initiated into all the Grecian and barba- 
rian sacred mysteries. Accordingly he went to Egypt, on 
which occasion Polycrates gave him a letter of introduction to 
Amasis ; and he learnt the Egyptian language, and he asso- 
ciated with the Chaldeans and with the Magi. 

Afterwards he went to Crete, and in company with Epi- 
menides, he descended into the Idaean cave, (and in Egypt 
too, he entered into the holiest parts of their temples), and 
learned all the most secret mysteries that relate to their 
Gods. Then he returned back again to Samos, and finding 
his country reduced under the absolute dominion of Polyc- 
rates, he set sail, and fled to Crotona in Italy. And there, 
having given laws to the Italians, he gained a very high rep- 
utation, together with his scholars, who were about three 
hundred in number, and governed the republic in a most 
excellent manner ; so that the constitution was very nearly 
an aristocracy. 

Heraclides Ponticus says, that he was accustomed to speak 
of himself in this manner ; that he had formerly been iEthal- 



PYTHAGORAS. 269 

ides, and had been acconnted the son of Mercury ; and that 
Mercury had desired him to select any gift he pleased except 
immortality. And that he accordingly had requested that, 
whether living or dead, he might preserve the memory of 
what had happened to him. While, therefore, he was alive, 
he recollected everything; and when he was dead, he re- 
tained the same memory. And at a subsequent period he 
passed into Euphorbus, and was wounded by Menelaus. And 
while he was Euphorbus, he used to say that he had formerly 
been iEthalides ; and that he had received as a gift from 
Mercury the perpetual transmigration of his soul, so that it 
was constantly transmigrating and passing into whatever 
plants or animals it pleased ; and he had also received the 
gift of knowing and recollecting all that his soul had suffered 
in hell, and what sufferings too are endured by the rest of 
the souls. 

But after Euphorbus died, he said that his soul had passed 
into Hermotimus ; and when he wished to convince people of 
this he went into the territory of the Branchidse, and going 
into the temple of Apollo, he showed his shield which Mene- 
laus had dedicated there as an offering. For he said that he, 
when he sailed from Troy, had offered up his shield* which 
was already getting worn out, to Apollo, and that nothing 
remained but the ivory face which was on it. And when 
Hermotimus died, then he said that he had become Pyrrhus, 

* This resembles the account which Ovid puts into the mouth of Pythago- 
ras, in the last book of his Metamorphoses, where he makes him say : — 
Death has no power th' immortal soul to slay ; 
That, when its present body turns to clay, 
Seeks a fresh home, and with unminish'd might, 
Inspires another frame with life and light. 
So I myself, (well 1 the past recall) 
When the fierce Greeks begirt Troy's holy wall, 
Was brave Euphorbus ; and in conflict drear, 
Poured forth my blood beneath Atrides' spear : 
The shield this arm did bear I lately saw 
In Juno's shrine, a trophy of that war. 

23* 



270 PYTHAGORAS. 

a fisherman of Delos ; aisd he still recollected everything, 
how he had been formerly iEthalides, then Euphorbus, then 
Hermotimns, and then Pyrrhus. And when Pyrrhus died, 
he became Pythagoras, and still recollected all the circum- 
stances that I have been mentioning. 

Now, some people say that Pythagoras did not leave be- 
hind him a single book ; but they talk foolishly ; for Herac- 
litus the natural philosopher, speaks plainly enough of him, 
saying, ''Pythagoras, the son of Mnesarchus, was the most 
learned of all men in history ; and having selected from these 
writings, he thus formed his own wisdom and extensive 
learning, and mischievous art." And he speaks thus, because 
Pythagoras, in the beginning of his treatise on Natural Phi- 
losophy, writes in the following manner : " By the air which 
I breathe, and by the water which I drink, I will not endure 
to be blamed on account of this discourse." 

Aristoxenns asserts that Pythagoras derived the greater 
part of his ethical doctrines from Themistocles, the priestess 
at Delphi. And Ion, of Chios, in his Victories, says that- he 
wrote some poems and attributed them to Orpheus. They 
also say that the poem called the Scopeadse is by him, which 
begins thus : — 

Behave not shamelessly to any one. 

And Sosicrates, in his Successions, relates that he, having 
been asked by Leon, the tyrant of the Phliasians, who he was, 
replied, " A philosopher." And adds, that he used to compare 
life to a festival. " And as some people came to a festival to 
contend for the prizes, and others for the purposes of traffic, 
and the best as spectators ; so also in life, the men of slavish 
dispositions," said he, " are born hunters after glory and 
covetousnesss, but philosophers are seekers after truth." And 
thus he spoke on this subject. But in the three treatises above 
mentioned, the following principles are laid down by Pythag- 
oras generally. 



PYTHAGORAS. 271 

He forbids men to pray for anything in particular for them- 
selves, because they do not know what is good for them. He 
calls drunkenness an expression identical with ruin, and rejects 
all superfluity, saying, " That no one ought to exceed the 
proper quantity of meat and drink." And on the subject of 
venereal pleasures, he speaks thus : — " One ought to sacrifice 
to Venus in the winter, not in the summer ; and in autumn 
and spring in a lesser degree. But the practice is pernicious 
at every season, and is never good for the health." And once 
when he was asked when a man might indulge in the pleasures 
of love, he replied, " Whenever you wish to be weaker than 
yourself." 

He divides the life of man thus. A boy for twenty years ; 
a young man for twenty years ; a middle-aged man for twenty 
years; an old man for twenty years. And these different 
ages correspond proportionably to the seasons: boyhood 
answers to spring ; youth to summer ; middle age to autumn ; 
and old age to winter. 

He Avas the first person, as Timseus says, who asserted that 
the property of friends is common, and that friendship is 
equality. And his disciples used to put all their possessions 
together into one store, and use them in common ; and for 
five years they kept silence, doing nothing but listen to dis- 
courses, and never once seeing Pythagoras, until they were 
approved ; and after that time they were admitted into his 
house, and allowed to see him. They also abstained from the 
use of cypress coffins, because the sceptre of Jupiter was made 
of that wood. 

He is said to have been a man of the most dignified appear- 
ance, and his disciples adopted an opinion respecting him, that 
he was Apollo who had come from the Hyperboreans; and 
it is said, that once when he was stripped naked, he was 
seen to have a golden thigh. And there were many people 
who affirmed, that when he was crossing the river Nessus it 
addressed him by his name. 



272 PYTHAGORAS. 

Timseus, in the tenth book of his Histories, tells us, that he 
used to say that women who were married to men had the 
names of the Gods, being successively called virgins, then 
nymphs, and subsequently mothers. 

It was Pythagoras also who carried geometry to perfection, 
after Moeris had first found out the principles of the elements 
of that science, as Aristiclides tells us in the second book of 
his History of Alexander ; and the part of the science to 
which Pythagoras applied himself above all others was arith- 
metic. He also discovered the numerical relation of sounds 
on a single string ; he also studied medicine. And Apollo- 
dorus, the logician, records of him, that he sacrificed a heca- 
tomb, when he had discovered that the square of the hypothe- 
neuse of a right-angled triangle is equal to the squares of the 
sides containing the right angle. And there is an epigram 
which is couched in the following terms : — 

When the great Samian sage his noble problem found, 
A hundred oxen dyed with their life-blood the ground. 

He is also said to have been the first man who trained 
athletes on meat ; and Eurymenes was the first man who 
ever did submit to this diet, as before that time men used to 
train themselves on dry figs and moist cheese, and wheaten 
bread. But some authors state, that a trainer of the name of 
Pythagoras certainly did train his athletes on this system, but 
that it was not our philosopher ; for that he even forbade men 
to kill animals at all, much less would have allowed his disci- 
ples to eat then, as having a right to live in common with 
mankind. And this was his pretext ; but in reality, he pro- 
hibited the eating of animals, because he wished to train and 
accustom men to simplicity of life, so that all their food 
should be easily procurable, as it would be, if they ate only 
such things as required no fire to dress them, and if they 
drank plain water ; for from this diet they would derive health 
of body and acuteness of intellect. 



PYTHAGORAS. 273 

The only altar at which he worshipped was that of Apollo 
the Father, at Delos, which is at the back of the altar of 
Ceratinus, because wheat, and barley, and cheese-cakes are 
the only offeriDgs laid upon it, being not dressed by fire ; and 
no victim is ever slain there. They say, too, that he was the 
first person who asserted that the soul went a necessary circle, 
being changed about and confined at different times in differ- 
ent bodies. He was also the first person who introduced 
measures and weights among the Greeks. Parmenides, too, 
assures us, that he was the first person who asserted the 
identity of Hesperus and Lucifer. 

He was so greatly admired, that they used to say that his 
friends looked on all his sayings as the oracles of God * And 
he himself says in his writings, that he had come among men 
after having spent two hundred and seven years in the shades 
below. Therefore the Lucanians and the Peucetians, and the 
Messapians, and the Romans, flocked around him, coming 
with eagerness to hear his discourses : but until the time of 
Philolaus, there were no doctrines of Pythagoras ever di- 
vulged ; and he was the first person who published the three 
celebrated books which Plato wrote to have purchased for him 
for a hundred minse. Nor were the number of* his scholars 
who used to come to him by night fewer than six hundred. 
And if any of them had ever been permitted to see him, they 
wrote of it to their friends, as if they had gained some great 
advantage. 

And the rest of the Pythagoreans used to say, according to 
the account given by Aristoxenus, in the tenth book of his 
Laws on Education, that his precepts ought not to be divulged 
to all the world ; and Xenophilus, the Pythagorean, when he 

* This passage has been interpreted in more ways than one. Casaubon 
thinks with great probability that there is a hiatus in the text. I have en- 
deavored to extract a meaning out of what remains. Compare Samuel ii. 16, 
23. " And the counsel of Ahitophel, which he counselled in those days, was as 
if a man had inquired at the oracle of God ; so was all the counsel of Ahitophel 
both with David and with Absalom." 



274 PYTHAGORAS. 

was asked what was the best way for a man to educate his 
son, said, " That he must first of all take care that he was 
born in a city which enjoyed good laws." 

Pythagoras, too, formed many excellent men in Italy, by 
his precepts, and among them Zaleucus,* and Charondas, the 
lawgivers. For he was very eminent for his power of at- 
tracting friendships ; and among other things, if ever h6 
heard that any one had any community of symbols with him, 
lie at once made him a companion and a friend. 

JSTow, what he called his symbols were such as these. " Do 
not stir the fire with a sword." "Do not sit down on a 
bushel." " Do not devour your heart." " Do not aid men 
in discarding a burden, but in increasing one." "Always 
have your hed packed up." " Do not bear the image of a 
God on a ring." " Efface the traces of a pot in the ashes." 
" Do not wipe a seat with a lamp." He also announced 
the following : " Do not walk in the main street." Do not 
offer your right hand lightly." "Do not cherish swallows 
under your roof." " Do not cherish birds with crooked tal- 
ons." "Do not defile ; and do not stand upon the parings of 
your nails, or the cuttings of your hair." " Avoid a sharp 
sword." "When you are travelling abroad, look not back at 
your own borders." Now the precept not to stir fire with a 

* Zaleucus was the celebrated lawgiver of the Epizephyrian Locrains, and is 
said to have been originally a slave employed by a shepherd, and to have been set 
free and appointed lawgiver by the direction of an oracle, in consequence of his 
announcing some excellent laws, which he represented Minerva as having com- 
municated to him in a dream. Diogenes is wrong, however, in calling him a 
disciple of Pythagoras (see Bentley on Phalaris), as he lived about a hundred 
years before his time ; his true date being 660 b.c. The code of Zaleucus is 
stated to have been the first collection of written laws that the Greeks possessed. 
Their character was that of great severity. They have not come down to us. 
His death is said to have occurred thus. Among his laws was one forbidding 
any citizen to enter the senate house in arms, under the penalty of death. But 
in a sudden emergency, Zaleucus himself, in a moment of forgetfulness, trans- 
gressed his own law : on which he slew himself, declaring that he would vindi- 
cate his law. (Eustath. ad. II. i. p. 60). Diodorus, however, tells the same 
story of Charondas. 



PYTHAGORAS. 275 

sword meant, not to provoke the anger or swelling pride of 
powerful men ; not to violate the beam of the balance meant, 
not to transgress fairness and justice ; not to sit on a bushel 
is to have an equal care for the present and for the future, for 
by the bushel is meant one's daily food. By not devouring 
one's heart, he intended to show that we ought not to waste 
away our souls with grief and sorrow. In the precept that a 
man when travelling abroad should not turn his eyes back, 
lie recommended those who were departing from life not to 
be desirous to live, and not to be too much attracted by the 
pleasures here on earth. And the other symbols may be ex- 
plained in a similar manner, that we may not be too prolix 
here. 

And above all things, he used to prohibit the eating of the 
erythinus, and the melanurus; and also, he enjoined his dis- 
ciples to abstain from the hearts of animals, and from beans. 
And Aristotle informs us, that he sometimes used also to add 
to these prohibitions paunches and mullet. And some 
authors assert that he himself used to be contented with 
honey and honeycomb, and bread, and that he never drank 
wine in the daytime. And his desert was usually vegetables, 
either boiled or raw; and he very rarely ate fish. His dress 
was white, very clean, and his bed-clothes were also white, 
and woollen, for linen had not yet been introduced into that 
country. He was never known to have eaten too much, or 
to have drunk to much, or to indulge in the pleasures of love. 
He abstained wholly from laughter, and from all such indul- 
gences as jests and idle stories. And when he was angry, 
lie never chastised any one, whether slave or freeman. He 
used to call admonishing, feeding storks. 

He used to practice divination, as far as auguries and 
auspices go, but not by means of burnt offerings, except 
only the burning of frankincense. And all the sacrifices 
which he offered consisted of inanimate things. But some, 
however, assert that he did sacrifice animals, limiting himself 



276 PYTHAGORAS. 

to cocks, and suckiDg kids, but that he very rarely offered 
lambs. Aristoxenus, however, affirms that he permitted the 
eating of all other animals, and only abstained from oxen used 
in agriculture, and from rams. 

And Hieronymus says, that when he descended to the 
shades below, he saw the soul of Hesoid bound to a brazen 
pillar, and gnashing its teeth ; and that of Homer suspended 
from a tree, and snakes around it, as a punishment for the 
things that they had said of the Gods. And that those peo- 
ple also were punished who refrained from commerce with 
their wives ; and that on account of this he was greatly hon- 
ored by the people of Orotona. 

But Aristippus, of Oyrene, in his Account of Natural Phi- 
losophers, says that Pythagoras derived his name from the 
fact of his speaking (agoreuein) truth no less than the God at 
Delphi (tou puthiou). 

It is said that he used to admonish his disciples to repeat 
these lines to themselves whenever they returned home to 
their houses : — 

In what have I transgressed V What have I don e ? 
What that I should have done have I omitted ? 

And that he used to forbid them to offer victims to the Gods, 
ordering them to worship only at those altars which were un- 
stained with blood. He forbade them also to swear by the 
Gods ; saying, " That every man ought so to exercise him- 
self, as to be worthy of belief without an oath" He also 
taught men that it behooved them to honor their elders, 
thinking that which was precedent in point of time more 
honorable : just as in the world, the rising of the sun was 
more so than the setting ; in life, the beginning more so than 
the end ; and in animals, production more so than destruc- 
tion. 

Another of his rules was that men should honor the Gods 
above the daemons, heroes above men ; and of all men parents 



PYTHAGORAS.' 277 

were entitled to the highest degree of reverence. Another, 
that people should associate with one another in such away as 
not to make their friends enemies, but to render their enemies 
friends. Another was that they should think nothing exclu- 
sively their own. Another was to assist the law, and to make 
war upon lawlessness. Not to destroy or injure a cultivated 
tree, nor any animal either which does not injure men. That 
modesty and decorum consisted in never yielding to laughter, 
and yet not looking stern. He taught that men should avoid 
too much flesh, that they should in travelling let rest and ex- 
ertion alternate; that they should exercise memory ; that they 
should never say or do anything in anger ; that they should 
not pay respect to every kind of divination ; that they should 
use songs set to the lyre ; and by hymns to the Gods and to 
eminent men, display a reasonable gratitude to them. 

He also forbade his disciples to eat beans, because, as they 
were flatulent, they greatly partook of animal properties [he 
also said that men kept their stomachs in better order by 
avoiding them] ; and that such abstinence made the visions 
which appear in one's sleep gentle and free from agitation. 

He also taught that the sun and the moon, and the stars, were 
all Gods ; for in them the warm principle predominates which is 
the cause of life. And that the moon derives its light from 
the sun. And that there is a relationship between men and 
the Gods, because men partake of the divine principle : on 
which account also, God exercises his providence for our ad- 
vantage. Also, that fate is the cause of the arrangement of 
the world both generally and particularly. And that the soul 
is a something torn off" from the aether, both warm and cold, 
from its partaking of the cold sether. And that the soul is 
something different from life. Also, that it is immortal, be- 
cause that from which it has been detached is immortal. 

Also, that animals are born from one another by seeds, and 
that it is impossible for there to be any spontaneous production 
by the earth. And that seed is a drop from the brain which 

24 



278 PYTHAGORAS. 

contains in itself a warm vapor ; and that when this is ap- 
plied to the womb, it transmits virtue, and moisture, and blood 
from the brain, from which flesh, and sinews, and bones, and 
hair, and the whole body are produced. And from the vapour 
is produced the soul, and also sensation. 

And Aristotle says, in his treatise on Beans, that Pythag- 
oras enjoined his disciples to abstain from beans, either because 
they resemble some part of the human body, or because they 
are like the gates of hell (for they are the only plants without 
parts) ; or because they dry up other plants, or' because they 
are representatives of universal nature, or because they are 
used in elections in oligarchical governments. He also forbade 
his disciples to pick up what fell from the table, for the sake 
of accustoming them not to eat immoderately, or else because 
such things belong to the dead. 

But Aristophanes says, that what falls belongs to the heroes ; 
saying, in his Heroes: — 

Never taste the things which fall 
From the table on the floor. 

He also forbade his disciples to eat white poultry, because a 
cock of that color was sac-red to Month, and was also a sup- 
pliant. He was also accounted a good animal ; * and he was 
sacred to the God Month, for he indicates the time. 

The Pythagoreans were also forbidden to eat of all fish that 
were sacred ; on the ground that the same animals ought not 
to be served up before both Gods and men, just as the same 
things do not belong to freemen and to slaves. Now, white is 
an indication of a good nature, and black of a bad one. 
Another of the precepts of Pythagoras was, that men ought 
not to break bread ; because in ancient times friends used to 
assemble around one loaf, as they even now do among the bar- 
barians. Nor would he allow men to divide bread which 
unites them. Some think that he laid down this rule in refer- 

* There is a great variety of suggestions as to the proper reading here. There 
is evidently some corruption in the text. 



PYTHAGORAS. 279 

ence to the judgment which takes place in hell; some because 
this practice engenders timidity in war. According to others, 
what is alluded to is the Union, which presides over the gov- 
ernment of the universe. 

Another of his doctrines was, that of all solid figures the 
sphere was the most beautiful ; and of all plane figures, the 
circle. That old age and all diminution were similar, and also 
increase and youth were identical. That health was the per- 
manence of form, and disease the destruction of it. Of salt 
his opinion was, that it ought to be set before people as a 
reminder of justice; for salt preserves everything which it 
touches, and it is composed of the purest particles of water 
and sea. 

These are the doctrines which Alexander asserts that he 
discovered in the Pythagorean treatises ; and Aristotle gives a 
similar account of them. 

Timon, in his Silli, has not left unnoticed the dignified ap- 
pearance of Pythagoras, when he attacks him on other points. 
And his words are these : — 

Pythagoras, who often teaches 
Precepts of magic, and with speeches 
Of long high-sounding diction draws, 
From gaping crowds, a vain applause. 

Respecting his having been different people at different 
times, Xenophanes adds his evidence in an elegiac poem which 
commences thus : — 

Now I will on another subject touch, 
And lead the way. 

The passage in which he mentions Pythagoras is as fol- 
lows : — 

They say that once, as passing by he saw 

A dog severely beaten, he did pity him, 

And spoke as follows to the man who beat him : — 

" Stop now, and beat him not ; since in his body, 

Abide;? the soul of a dear friend of mine, 

Whose voice I recognized as he was crying." 



280 PYTHAGORAS. 

These are the words of Xenophanes. 

Cratirms also ridiculed him in his Pythagorean Woman ; but 
in his Tarentines, he speaks thus : — 

They are accustomed, if by chance they see 

A private individual abroad, 

To try what powers of argument he has, 

Bow he can speak and reason ; and they bother him 

With strange antithesis and forced conclusions, 

Errors, comparisons, and magnitudes, 

Till they have filled and quite perplex'd his mind. 

And Innesiraachus says in his Alcmseon : — 

As we do sacrifice to the Phoebus whom 
Pythagoras worships, never eating aught 
Which has the breath of life. 

Austophon says in his Pythagorean : — 

A. He said that when he did descend below 
Among the shades in Hell, he there beheld 
All men who e'er had died ; and there he saw, 
That the Pythagoreans differ'd much 

From all the rest ; for that with them alone 
Did Pluto deign to eat, much honoring 
Their pious habits. 

B. He 's a civil God, 

If he likes eating with such dirty fellows. 

And again, in the same play, he says : 

They eat 
Nothing but herbs and vegetables, and drink 
Pure water only. But their lice are such, 
Their cloaks so dirty, and their unwash'd scent 
So rank, that no one of our younger men 
Will for a moment bear them. 

Pythagoras died in this manner. "When he was sitting with 
some of his companions in Milo's house, some one of those 
whom he did not think worthy of admission into it, was excit- 
ed by envy to set fire to it. But some say that the people of 
Crotona themselves did this, being afraid lest he might aspire 
to the tyranny. And that Pythagoras was caught as he was 
trying to escape ; and coming to a place full of beans, he stop- 



PYTHAGORAS. 281 

ped there, saying that it was better to be caught than to tram- 
ple on the beans, and better to be slain than to speak ; and so 
he was murdered by those who were pursuing him. And in 
this way, also, most of his companions were slain; being in 
number abouty forty ; but that a very few did escape, among 
whom were Archippus, of Tarentum, and Lysis, whom I have 
mentioned before. 

But Diceearchus relates that Pythagoras died afterwards, 
having escaped as far as the temple of the Muses, at Metapon- 
tum, and that he died there of starvation, having abstained 
from food for forty days. And Heraclides says, in his abridg- 
ment of the life of Satyrus, that after he had buried Pherecy- 
des in Delos, he returned to Italy, and finding there a superb 
banquet prepared at the house of Milo, of Crotona, he left 
Crotona, and went to Metapontum, and there put an end to his 
life by starvation, not wishing to live any longer. But Her- 
mippus says, that when there was war between the people of 
Agrigentum and the Syracusans, Pythagoras went out with 
his usual companions, and took the part of the Agrigentines ; 
and as they were put to flight, he ran all round a field of beans, 
instead of crossing it, and so was slain by the Syracusans ; and 
that the rest, being about five-and-thirty in number, were 
burnt at Tarentum, when they were trying to excite a sedition 
in the state against the principal magistrates. 

Hermippus also relates another story about Pythagoras. 
For he says that when he was in Italy, he made a subterra- 
neous apartment, and charged his mother to write an account 
of everything that took place, marking the time of each on a 
tablet, and then to send them down to him, until he came up 
again ; and that his mother did so ; and that Pythagoras came 
up again after a certain time, lean, and reduced to a skeleton ; 
and that he came into the public assembly, and said that he 
had arrived from the shades below, and then he recited to 
them all that had happened during his absence. * And they, 
being charmed by what he told them, wept and lamented, 

24* 
I 



282 PYTHAGORAS. 

and believed that Pythagoras was a divine being; so that 
they even entrusted their wives to him, as likely to learn 
some good from him ; and that they too were- called Pythago- 
reans. This is the story of Hermippus. 

And Pythagoras had a wife, whose name was Theano ; 
the daughter of Brontinus, of Orotona. But some say that 
she was the wife of Brontinus, and only a pupil of Pythag- 
oras. And he had a daughter named Damo, as Lysis mentions 
in his letter to Hipparchus ; where he speaks thus of Pythag- 
oras : " And many say that you philosophize in public, as Py- 
thagoras also used to do ; who, when he had entrusted his 
Commentaries to Damo, his daughter, charged her to divulge 
them to no person out of the house. And she, though she 
might have sold his discourses for much money, would not 
abandon them, for she thought poverty and obedience to her 
father's injunctions more valuable than gold; and that too, 
though she was a woman." 

He had also a son, named Telauges, who was the successor 
of his father in his school, and who, according to some 
authors, was the teacher of Empedocles. At least Hippobo- 
tus relates that Empedocles said : — 

" Telanges, noble youth, whom in due time 
Theano bore to wise Pythagoras." 



ges, though there are some extant which are attributed to his 
mother Theano. And they tell a story of her, that once, 
when she was asked how long a woman ought to be absent 
from her husband to be pure, she said, the moment she leaves 
her own husband, she is pure ; but she is never pure at all, 
after she leaves any one else. And she recommended a wo- 
man, who was going to her husband, to put off her modesty 
with her clothes, and when she left him, to resume it again 
with her cltthes; and when she was asked, " What clothes?" 
she said, " Those which cause you to be called a woman." 



PYTHAGORAS. 283 

Now Pythagoras, as Heraclides, the son of Sarapian, relates, 
died when he was eighty years of age, according to his own 
account of his age, but according to the common account, he 
was more than ninety. And we have written a sportive epi- 
gram on him which is couched in the following terms : — 

You 're not the only man who has abstained 
From living food, for so likewise have we ; 
And who, I 'd like to know did ever taste 
Food while alive, most sage Pythagoras ? 
When meat is boil'd, or roasted well and salted, 
I don't think it can well be called living. 
Which, therefore, without scrapie then we eat it, 
And call it no more living flesh, but meat. 

And another, Avhich runs thus : — 

Pythagoras was so wise a man, that he 
Never eat meat himself, and called it sin. 
And yet he gave good joints of beef to others. 
So that I marvel at his principles ; 
Who others wronged, by teaching them to do 
What he believed unholy for himself. 

And another as follows : — 

Should you Pythagoras' doctrine wish to know, 
Look on the centre of Euphorbus' shield. 
For he asserts there lived a man of old, 
. And when he had no longer an existence, 
He still could say that he had been alive, 
Or else he would not still be living now. 

And this one too : — 

Alas ! alas ! why did Pythagoras hold 
Beans in such wondrous honor ? Why, besides, 
Did he thus die among his choice companions ? 
There was a field of beans ; and so the sage 
Died in the common road of Agrigeutum, 
Rather than trample down his favorite beans. 

He flourished about the sixteenth Olympiad ; and his system 
lasted for nine or ten generations. 

There were four men of the name of Pythagoras, about the 
same time, at no great distance from one another. But 



284 PYTHAGORAS. 

Eratosthenes says, as Phavoriims quotes him, in the eighth 
book of his Universal History, that this philosopher, of whom 
we are speaking, was the first man who ever practiced boxing 
in a scientific manner, in the forty-eighth Olympiad, having his 
hair long, and being clothed in a purple robe , and that he 
was rejected from the competition among boys, and being 
ridiculed for his application, he immediately entered among 
the men, and came off victorious. And this statement is con- 
firmed among other things, by the epigram which Thesetetus 
composed : — 

Stranger, if e'er you knew Pythagoras, 
Pythagoras the man with flowing hair, 
The celebrated boxer, erst of Samoa ; 
I am Pythagoras. And if you ask 
A citizen of Elis of my deeds, 
You '11 surely think he is relating fables. 

Phavorinus says, that he employed definitions, on account 
of the mathematical subjects to which he applied himself. 
And that Socrates and those who were his pupils, did so still 
more ; and that they were subsequently followed in this by 
Aristotle and the Stoics. 

He, too, was the first person who ever gave the name of 
Tcosmos to the universe, and the first who called the earth 
round ; though Theophrastus attributes this to Parmenides, 
and Zeno to Hesiod. They say, too, that Oylon used to be a 
constant adversary of his, as Antidicus was of Socrates. And 
this epigram also used to be repeated, concerning Pythagoras 
the athlete : — 

Pythagoras of Samos, son of Crates, 
Came while a child to the Olympic games, 
Eager to battle for the prize in boxing. 

Brucker says that the history of Pythagoras, beyond that of 
any other ancient philosopher, abounds with difficulties and con- 
tradictions, and is enveloped in fable and mystery. Pythagoras 
himself, and his followers through a long succession, were so far 
from committing their doctrines to writing, for the information 



PYTHAGORAS. 285 

of posterity, that they made use of every expedient to conceal 
them from their contemporaries. Hence the first records of 
the life and doctrines of this philosopher, which were only 
such as could be casually gathered up from tradition, were not 
less defective in probable and well-authenticated facts than 
they were abundant in absurd fictions. It was not till many 
ages after the time in which Pythagoras flourished that Porphyry 
and Jamblicus undertook to digest these scattered materials into 
a regular narrative. And these writers themselves were too 
credulous, too careless, and too much biased by prejudice, to 
to be capable of giving a judicious and impartial representa- 
tion of what was at that time known concerning Pythagoras. 
They were of the school of Ammonius and Plotinus ; in which, 
as we shall afterwards find, it was the common practice to 
misrepresent and falsify everything, and to obtrude upon the 
world marvellous tales, instead of real facts, for the sake of 
supporting the credit of their sect in opposition to Christian- 
ity. It follows, that the statements which are made concern- 
ing him, must be received with considerable allowance. He 
further says : Pythagoras, returning from Egypt to his native 
island, after an absence of more than twenty years, was de- 
sirous that his fellow-citizens should reap the benefit of his 
travels and studies, and for this purpose attempted to institute 
a school for their instruction in the elements of science, but 
chose to adopt the Egyptian method of teaching, and com- 
municate his doctrines under a symbolical form. The Samians 
were either too indolent, or too stupid, to profit by his in- 
structions. The number of his followers was so inconsiderable, 
that he was obliged for the present to relinquish his design. 
Loath, however, entirely to abandon the project, he determined, 
if possible, to find other means of engaging the attention of 
his countrymen. With this idea he repaired to Delos, and 
after presenting an offering of cakes to Apollo, then received, 
or pretended to receive, moral dogmas from the priestess, 
which he afterwards delivered to his disciples under the char- 



286 PYTHAGORAS. 

aeter of divine precepts. With the same design he also visited 
the island of Crete, so celebrated in mythological history, 
where he was conducted by the Corybantes, or priests of 
Cybele, into the cave of Mount Ida, in which Jupiter is said 
to have been buried. Here he conversed with Epimenides, 
an eminent pretender to prophetic powers, and was by him 
initiated into the most sacred mysteries of Greece. About 
the same time he visited Sparta and Elis, and was present 
during the celebration of the Olympic games, where he is said 
to have exhibited a golden thigh to Abaris, in order to con- 
vince him that he was Apollo. Amongst the places which he 
visited during his stay in Greece, was Phlius, the residence of 
Leon, king of the Phliasians. Here he first assumed the ap- 
pellation of philosopher. 

Thus furnished, not only with fresh stores of learning, but 
with a kind of authority which was still more liikely to pro- 
cure him respect, he returned to Samos, and made a second 
more successful attempt to institute among his countrymen a 
school of philosophy. The place which he chose for his 
purpose was a semi-circular building, in which the Samians 
had been accustomed to meet for public business. Here he 
chiefly employed himself in delivering, with an air of sacred 
authority, popular precepts of morality, which might con- 
tribute to the general benefit of the people. Besides this, he 
provided himself with a secret cave, into which he retired 
with his intimate friends and professed disciples, and here, not 
without a wonderful parade of mystery, gave them daily in- 
structions in the more abstruse parts of philosophy. These 
arts, which unquestionably rank this celebrated philosopher 
among impostors, proved successful, and procured him a great 
multitude of followers. What he had been unable to effect 
by the mere force of learning and ability, he soon accom- 
plished by concealing his doctrines under the veil of mysterious 
symbols, and by issuing forth his precepts as responses from a 
divine oracle. 



PYTHAGORAS. 287 

Having for some time successfully executed his plan of in- 
struction in Samos, whether the Samians began to detect his 
frauds, or to be apprehensive of his increasing popularity, or 
whether Pythagoras wished to escape the tyranny of the gov- 
ernor, Syloson, the brother of Polycrates, he suddenly left 
Samos, and passing over into Italy, attempted to establish his 
school among the colonies of Magna Grcecia. The time of this 
expedition is uncertain ; but it seems most probable that it 
happened about the beginning of the fifty-ninth Olympiad. It 
is more certain that when Pythagoras arrived in this country, 
in order to obtain credit with the populace, he pretended to a 
power of performing miracles, and practiced many arts of im- 
posture. 

The first place at which Pythagoras arrived was Crotona, a 
city in the bay of Tarentum, whose inhabitants were at this 
time exceedingly corrupted in their manners. Upon his first 
arrival, Plutarch and Apuleius relate, that observing a large 
draught of fishes, which had just been taken, he bought the 
whole capture of the fishermen, and ordered them to throw 
them again into the water, as a lesson to the spectators to 
spare the lives of fishes, and to refrain from this, as well as 
every other kind of animal food. Porphyry and Jamblicus 
relate the same story, with the addition of this marvellous 
circumstance, that Pythagoras, while the fishermen were draw- 
ing up the net, told them the exact number of fishes which it 
contained. 

By these and other arts, Pythagoras obtained such a degree 
of respect and influence in Crotona, that people of all classes 
assembled to hear his discourses. The effect was, that an en- 
tire change was produced in the manners of the citizens ; so 
that, from great luxury and licentiousness, they were convert- 
ed to strict sobriety and frugality of manners. It is asserted 
that in Crotona there were not less than six hundred persons 
(some say two thousand) who were prevailed upon to submit 
to the strict discipline which he required, and to throw their 



288 PYTHAGORAS. 

effects into a common stock for the benefit of the whole frater- 
nity. 

Pythagoras did not confine the influence of his philosophy 
to Crotona. He taught his doctrine in many other cities of 
'Magna Gh'cecia with so much energy and effect, that he es- 
tablished a large and extensive interest through the country, 
and obtained from his^ followers a degree of respect little 
short of adoration. 

Had Pythagoras contented himself with issuing forth orac- 
ular precepts of wisdom, and instructing his select disciples in 
the speculative doctrines of philosophy, it is probable he might 
have continued his labors, without molestation, to the end of 
his fife. But he discovered on many occasions a strong pro- 
pensity towards political innovations. Not only at Crotona, 
but at Metapontus, Rhegium, Agrigentum, and many other 
places, he obtained great influence over the people, and em- 
ployed it in urging them to the strenuous assertion of their 
rights against the encroachments of their tyrannical gov- 
ernors. 

These attempts, together with the singularities of his school, 
excited a general spirit of jealousy, and raised a powerful op- 
position against him. At the head of this opposition was Cylo, 
a man of wealth and distinction in Crotona, who had been re- 
fused admission into the society of the Pythagoreans, and 
whose temper was too haughty and violent to endure with 
patience such an indignity. The party thus raised against the 
Pythagoreans hearing that they were assembled in a large 
body at the house of Milo, one of their chief friends, surround- 
ed the house, and set it on fire. About forty persons perished 
in the flames. Archippus and Lysis, two natives of Tarentum, 
alone escaped : the former withdrew to his own city ; the lat- 
ter fled to Thebes. 

Pythagoras himself, if he was not present at the assembly, 
was probably in Crotona at the time when this fatal attack 
was made upon his school ; for the report of his having been 



PYTHAGORAS. 289 

then upon a journey to Delos, to visit his master Pherecydes, 
is inconsistent with chronology, that philosopher having died 
before Pythagoras left Samos. He was, however, wholly in- 
capable of resisting the torrent of jealonsy and enmity which 
rushed upon him. His remaining friends fled to Rhegium, 
and he was himself obliged to retire to Metapontum, after 
having in vain sought for protection from the Locrians. At 
Metapontum Pythagoras found himself still surrounded with 
enemies, and was obliged to take refuge in the temple of the 
Muses, where, not being able to procure from his friends the 
necessary supply of food, he perished with hunger. This is 
the most probable account we are able to collect of the last 
incidents in the life of Pythagoras. The time of his death is 
uncertain. According to the Chronicon of Eusebius, which 
we are inclined to follow, he died in the third year of the 
sixty-eight Olympiad, after having lived, according to the 
most probable statement of his birth, to the age of eighty 
years. After his death his disciples paid a superstitious re- 
spect to his memory, They erected statues in honor of him, 
converted his house in Crotona into a temple of Ceres, and ap- 
pealed to him as a divinity, swearing by his name. 

Many tales are related of Pythagoras, which carry with them 
their own refutation. That, by speaking a word, he tamed a 
Daunian bear which had laid waste the country ; that he pre- 
vented an ox from eating beans, by whispering in his ear ; that 
he called down an eagle from the sky ; that he was, on the 
same day, present, and discoursed in public, at Metapontum in 
Italy, and at Tauromenium in Sicily ; that he predicted earth- 
quakes, storms, and other future events ; and that a river, as 
he passed over it with his friends, cried out, Hail, Pythagoras ! 
are wonders, which would require much clearer and better 
evidence to gain them credit, than the testimony of Apollo- 
nius, Porphyry, and Jamblicus, or even of Laertius and Pliny. 
It appears, upon the face of the history of this philosopher, 
that he owed much of his celebrity and authority to impos- 
25 



290 PYTHAGORAS. 

ture. Why did he so studiously court the society of Egyptian 
priests, so famous in ancient times for their arts of deception? 
why did he take so much pains to be initiated in religious 
mysteries ? why did he retire into a subterraneous cavern in 
Crete? why did he assume the character of Apollo, at the 
Olympic games ? why did he boast that his soul had lived in 
former bodies, and that he had been first iEthalidesthe son of 
Mercury, then Euphorbus, then Pyrrhus of Delos, and at last 
Pythagoras, but that he might the more easily impose upon 
the credulity of an ignorant and superstitious people? His 
whole manner of life, as far as it is known, confirms this opin- 
ion. Clothed in a long white robe, with a flowing beard, and, 
as some relate, with a golden crown on his head, he preserved 
among the people, and in the presence of his disciples, a com- 
manding gravity and majesty of aspect. He made use of 
music to promote the tranquillity of his mind, frequently sing- 
ing, for this purpose, hymns of Thales, Hesiod, and Homer. 
He had such an entire command of himself, that he was never 
seen to express, in his countenance, grief, or joy, or anger. 
He refrained from animal food, and confined himself to a frugal 
vegetable diet, excluding from his simple bill of fare, for sun- 
dry mystical reasons, pulse or beans. ' By this artificial de- 
meanor, Pythagoras passed himself upon the vulgar as a 
being of an order superior to the common condition of hu- 
manity, and persuaded them that he had received his doctrine 
from heaven. 

Pythagoras married Theano of Crotona, or, as some relate, 
of Crete, by whom he had two sons, Telauges and Mnesar- 
chus, who, after his death, took the charge of his school. 

Whether Pythagoras left behind him any writings, is a 
point much disputed. Laertius enumerates many pieces 
which appeared under his name ; and Jamblicus and Pliny 
increase the list. But Plutarch, Josephus, Lucian, and others, 
confess that there were no genuine works of Pythagoras ex- 
tant ; and, from the pains which Pythagoras took to confine 



PYTHAGORAS. 291 

his doctrine to his own school during his life, it appears 
highly probable that he never committed his philosophical 
system to writing, and that those pieces to which his name 
was early affixed were written by some of his followers, ac- 
cording to the principles and tenets which they had learned 
in his school. Among the pieces attributed to Pythagoras, 
no one is more famous than the Golden Verses, which Hiero- 
cles has illustrated with a Commentary. It is generally be- 
lieved that they were not written by Pythagoras : perhaps 
they are to be ascribed to Epicharmus, or Empedocles. 
They may be considered as a brief summary of his popular 
doctrines. 

The method of instruction adopted by Pythagoras was 
twofold, exoteric and esoteric, or public and private. This 
distinction he had seen introduced with great advantage by 
the Egyptian priests, who found it admirably adapted to 
strengthen their authority, and increase their emolument. 
He therefore determined as far as circumstances would ad- 
mit, to form his school upon the Egyptian model. For the 
general benefit of the people, he held public assemblies, in 
which he delivered discourses in praise of virtue, and against 
vice ; and in these he gave particular instructions, in different 
classes, to husbands and wives, parents and children, and 
others who filled the several relations of society. The audi- 
tors who attended these public lectures did not properly be- 
long to his school, but continued to follow their usual mode 
of living. Besides these he had a select body of disciples 
whom he called his companions and friends, who submitted 
to a peculiar plan of discipline, and were admitted by a long 
course of instruction into all the mysteries of his esoteric doc- 
trine. 

Before any one could be admitted into this fraternity Py- 
thagoras examined his features and external appearance ; in- 
quired in what manner he had been accustomed to behave 
towards his parents and friends; remarked his manner of 



292 PYTHAGORAS. 

conversing, laughing, and keeping silence; and observed 
what passions he was most inclined to indulge, with what 
kind of company he chose to associate, how he passed his 
leisure moments, and what incidents appeared to excite in 
him the strongest emotions of joy or sorrow. From these and 
other circumstances, Pythagoras formed an accurate judg- 
ment of the qualifications of the candidate ; and he admitted 
no one into his society till he was fully persuaded of the do- 
cility of his dispositions, the gentleness of his manners, his 
power of retaining in silence what he was taught, and, in 
fine r his capacity of becoming a true philosopher. 

Upon the first probationary admission, the fortitude and 
self-command of the candidate was put to the trial by a long 
course of severe abstinence and rigorous exercise. In order 
to subdue every inclination towards luxurious enjoyment, 
Pythagoras accustomed those who were admitted to this in- 
itiatory discipline to abstain from animal food, except the re- 
mains of the sacrifices, and to drink nothing but water, unless 
in the evening, when they were allowed a small portion of 
wine. That he might effectually inure them to self-denial, 
he sometimes ordered a table richly covered with dainties to 
be spread before them, and, when they were impatiently ex- 
pecting to gratify their appetites, commanded the whole en- 
tertainment to be taken away, and dismissed them without 
any refreshment. He suffered them to wear no other gar- 
ments but such as were suited to express the utmost pu- 
rity and simplicity of manners. Of sleep he required them to 
be exceedingly frugal ; and, in short, indulged them in no- 
thing which could be supposed to inflame their passions, or 
cherish voluptuous desires. To correct an effeminate dread 
of labor or suffering, he prescribed them exercises which 
could not be performed without pain and fatigue. To teach 
them humility and industry, he exposed them, for three years, 
to a continued course of contradiction, ridicule, and contempt, 
among their fellows. The powerful passion of avarice he op- 



PYTHAGORAS. • 293 

posed, by requiring his disciples to submit to voluntary pov- 
erty. He not only taught them to be contented with a little, 
but even deprived them of all command over their own prop- 
erty, by casting the possessions of each individual into a com- 
mon stock, to be distributed by proper officers, as occasion 
should require. From the time of this sequestration of their 
goods, as long as they continued members of this society, they 
lived upon the footing of perfect equality, and sat down 
together daily at a common table. If any one, however, re- 
pented of the connection, he was at liberty to depart, and 
might reclaim, from the general fund, his whole contribu- 
tion. 

That he might give his disciples a habit of entire docility, 
Pythagoras also enjoined upon them, from their first admiss- 
ion, a long term of silence called echemuttda, i. e., silence, or 
taciturnity. This exoteric silence is not to be confounded 
with that sacred reserve, with which all the disciples of Py- 
thagoras were bound, upon oath, to receive the doctrines of 
their master, that they might, from no inducement whatever, 
suffer them to pass beyond the limits of the sect. The initia- 
tory silence probably consisted in refraining from speech, not 
only during the hours of instruction, but through the whole 
term of initiation. It continued from two to five years, ac- 
cording to the degree of propensity which the pupil discov- 
ered towards conceit and loquacity. The restraint which 
Pythagoras thus put upon the " winged words" of his pu- 
pils, might possibly be of great use to them ; it was certainly 
a judicious expedient with respect to himself, as it restrained 
impertinent curiosity, and prevented every inconvenience of 
contradiction. Accordingly, we find that his disciples silenced 
all doubts, and refuted all objections, by appealing to his 
authority. Ipse dixit, decided every dispute. Xor was 
this preparatory discipline deemed sufficiently severe, without 
adding, daring the years of initiation, an entire prohibition of 
seeing their master, or hearing his lectures, except from be- 
25* 



294 PYTHAGORAS. 

hind a curtain. And even this privilege was too great to be 
commonly allowed ; for in this stage of tuition they were 
usually instructed by some inferior preceptor, who barely re- 
cited the doctrines of Pythagoras, without assigning the rea- 
sonings or demonstrations upon which they were grounded, 
and required the obedient pupil to receive them as unques- 
tionable truths, upon their master's word. Those who had 
sufficient perseverance to pass these several steps of probation 
were at last admitted among the esoterics, and allowed to 
hear and see Pythagoras behind the curtain. But if it hap- 
pened that any one, through impatience of such rigid disci- 
pline, chose to withdraw from the society before the expira- 
tion of his term of trial, he was dismissed with a share of 
the common stock, the double of that which he had ad- 
vanced ; a tomb was erected for him as for a dead man, and 
he was to be as much forgotten by the brethren as if he had 
been actually dead. 

It was the peculiar privilege of the members of the esoteric 
school (who were called genuine disciples) to receive a full 
explanation of the whole doctrine of Pythagoras, which to 
others was delivered in brief precepts and dogmas, under the 
concealment of symbols. They were also permitted to take 
minutes of their master's lectures in writing, and to propose 
questions, and offer remarks upon every subject of discourse. 
These disciples were particularly distinguished by the appella- 
tion of the Pythagoreans ; they were also called Mathema- 
ticians, from the studies upon which they entered immediately 
after their initiation. After they had made a sufficient pro- 
gress in geometrical science, they were conducted to the study 
of nature, the investigation of primary principles, and the 
knowledge of God. Those who pursued these sublime specu- 
lations were called Theorists ; and such as more particularly 
devoted themselves to theology were styled Religious. Others, 
according to their respective abilities and inclinations, were 
engaged in the study of Morals, (Economics and Policy ; and 



PYTHAGORAS. 295 

were afterwards employed in managing the affairs of the 
fraternity, or sent into the cities of Greece, to instruct them 
in the principles of government, or assist them in the institu- 
tion of laws. • 

The brethren of the Pythagorean college at Orotona, who 
were about six hundred in number, lived together, as one 
family, with their wives and children, in a public build- 
ing called the common auditory. The whole business of the 
society was conducted with the most perfect regularity. 
Every day was begun with a distinct deliberation upon the 
manner in which it should be spent, and concluded with a 
careful retrospect of the events which had occurred, and the 
business which had been transacted. They rose before the 
sun, that they might pay him homage, after which they re- 
peated select verses from Homer, and other poets, and made 
use of music, both vocal and instrumental, to enliven their 
spirits and fit them for the duties of the day. They then em- 
ployed several hours in the study of science. These were 
succeeded by an interval of leisure, which was commonly 
spent in a solitary walk for the purpose of contemplation. 
The next portion of the day was allotted to conversation. 
The hour immediately before dinner was filled up with vari- 
ous kinds of athletic exercises. Their dinner consisted chiefly 
of bread, honey, and water ; for, after they were perfectly 
initiated, they wholly denied themselves the use of wine. 
The remainder of the day was devoted to civil and domestic 
affairs, conversation, bathing, and religious ceremonies. 
- The exoteric disciples of Pythagoras were taught after the 
Egyptian manner by images and symbols, which must have 
been exceedingly obscure to those who were not initiated into 
the mysteries of the school. And they who were admitted 
to this privilege were trained from their first admission, to ob- 
serve invariable silence with respect to the recondite doctrines 
of their master. That the wisdom of Pythagoras might not 
pass into the ears of the vulgar, they committed it chiefly to 



296 QUINTIUS TUBERO. SENECA. 

memory, and where they found it necessary to make use of 
writing, they were careful not to suffer their minutes to pass 
beyond the limits of the school. 



QUINTIUS TUBERO. 

Quintius Tubeeo, a nephew of Scipio Africanus, who was 
one of the most celebrated masters of civil law, was also con- 
versant with philosophical learning, and professed himself a 
follower of the Stoic sect. The moral doctrine of this sect 
was peculiarly suitable to his natural temper, and to the habits 
of temperance and moderation which he had learned from his 
father, one of those excellent Romans, who, in the highest 
offices of the State, retained the simplicity of rustic manners. 
Confirmed in these habits by the precepts of Pansetius, when 
Tubero was called upon, as pretor, to give a public entertain- 
ment in honor of his uncle, he provided only wooden couches 
covered with goat skins, earthen vessels, and a frugal repast. 
The people, who expected a splendid feast, were dissatisfied, 
and dismissed him from his- office : but the action reflected no 
discredit either upon the lawyer or the philosopher ; for it 
was, as Seneca remarks, an instructive lesson of moderation 
to the Romans, who, when they saw the sacred tables of Jupi- 
ter served with earthen vessels, would learn that men ought 
to be contented with such things as the Gods themselves did 
not disdain to use. 



SENECA. 

Lucius Ann^eus Senega was a native of Corduba, an ancient 
and flourishing Roman settlement in Spaiu. His father, Mar- 
cus Annseus Seneca, a man of equestrian rank, was a cele- 



SENECA. 297 

brated orator ; his mother's Dame was Helvia. He was bora 
about fifteen years before the death of Augustus, or the year 
before the commencement of the Christian era, and wa9 
brought to Rome while a child, probably for education, by 
his aunt, who accompanied him on account of the delicate 
state of his health. His first studies were devoted by his 
father to eloquence, but his mind, naturally disposed towards 
serious and weighty pursuits, soon passed over from words to 
things ; and he chose rather to reason with the philosophers 
than to declaim with the rhetoricians. This propensity was 
displeasing to his father, who, having himself no taste for 
philosophy, thought it a frivolous study, and had no other object 
of ambition, either for himself or his children, than eloquence. 
His son Junius Gallio succeeded in this pursuit, and was cele- 
brated for the melody of his elocution ; but Lucius was not 
to be diverted from his purpose of devoting himself to wisdom. 
Sotion, a philosopher, who, though of the Pythagorean sect, 
inclined to the Stoic doctrine concerning morals, was fixed 
upon as his preceptor. But whether it was that Seneca was 
disgusted with the severity of the Pythagoric discipline, or 
that he was dissatisfied with the obscure dogmas of this school, 
he soon forsook Sotion, and became a disciple of Attains, a 
Stoic ; at the same time, occasionally conversing with phi- 
losophers of other sects, and freely examining the writings, or 
doctrines, of the several founders of the Grecian schools. 
Through his father's importunity, he for a short time inter- 
rupted his philosophical studies to engage in the business of 
the courts ; and we are assured by so good a judge as Quin- 
tilian, that, whilst he continued to plead, his speeches, if de- 
ficient in some of the graces of oratory, abounded with that 
good sense and strength of thought which are the basis of elo- 
quence. 

• Thus furnished with plentiful stores of learning, and with a 
competent skill in the art of speaking, Seneca, as soon as he 
arrived at the age of manhood, aspired to the honors of the 



298 SENECA. 

State. The first office with which he was invested was that 
of questor; but at what time he obtained it is uncertain. 
From this time his good fortune made rapid advances ; and 
he soon rose to distinction in the court of Claudius. But the 
particulars of his public life, during this period, are nowhere 
preserved. Hence it is impossible to discover with certainty 
the cause of the charge, which was publicly brought against 
him, of adultery with Julia, the daughter of Germanicus, and 
wife of Yenicius. It is probable, however, from the infamous 
character of Messalina, who instigated the prosecution, that he 
was accused without any sufficient ground. The affair, not- 
withstanding, terminated in his banishment ; and Seneca, after 
having for many years enjoyed the favor of the emperor, and 
been distinguished among the great, was obliged to remain 
eight years an exile in the island of Corsica. Here, if we are 
to credit his own account, he passed his time agreeably, de- 
voting himself entirely to the study of philosophy and elegant 
learning. In a letter to his mother, he says, "Be assured 
that I am as cheerful and happy as in the days of my greatest 
prosperity ; I may indeed call my present days such ; since 
my mind, free from care, is at leisure for its favorite pursuits, 
and can either amuse itself with lighter studies, or, in its eager 
search after truth, rise to the contemplation of its own nature 
and that of the universe." But it may be questioned whether 
Stoic ostentation had not some share in dictating this report ; 
for we find him, in another place, expressing much distress on 
account of his misfortune, and courting the emperor in a 
strain of servile adulation, little worthy of so eminent a phi- 
losopher. 

Agrippina, the second wife of Claudius, whose character was 
the reverse of that of Messalina, employed her interest with 
the emperor in favor of Seneca ; and not only obtained his 
recall from banishment, but prevailed upon Claudius to con- 
fer upon him the honorable office of pretor. Her inducement 
to this measure appears to have been a desire of engaging a 



SENECA. 299 

philosopher of so much distinction and merit to undertake the 
education of her son. Probably, too, she hoped, by attach- 
ing Seneca to her family, to strengthen Nero's interest in the 
state ; for the Roman people would, of course, entertain high 
expectations from a prince educated under such a master. 
Afranius Burrhus, a pretorian prefect, was joined with Sen- 
eca in this important charge ; and these two preceptors, who 
were entrusted with equal authority, and had each his re- 
spective department, executed their trust with perfect har- 
mony, and with some degree of success ; Burrhus instructing 
his pupil in the military art, and inuring him to wholesome 
discipline ; Seneca furnishing him with the principles of phi- 
losophy, and the precepts of wisdom and eloquence ; and 
both endeavoring to confine their pupil within the limits of 
decorum and virtue. Whilst these preceptors united their 
authority, Nero was restrained from indulging his natural pro- 
pensities ; but after the death of Burrhus, the influence of 
Seneca declined, and the young prince began to disclose that 
depravity which afterwards stained his character with eternal 
infamy. 

Still, however, Seneca enjoyed the favor of his prince ; and, 
after Nero was advanced to the empire, he long continued to 
load his preceptor with honors and riches. Partly from in- 
heritance and marriage, but chiefly through imperial munif- 
icence, he possessed a large estate, and lived in great splen- 
dor. Juvenal speaks of 

The gardens of the wealthy Seneca. 

A superb mansion at Rome, delightful country seats, rich 
furniture, including, as Dio x>articularly mentions, five hun- 
dred cedar tables with ivory feet, uniform, and of excellent 
workmanship, were articles of luxury hitherto unusual among 
philosophers, and were thought by many not very consistent, 
with that high tone of indifference, in which the Stoics, and 
among the rest Seneca himself, spoke of external good. Suil- 



300 SENECA. 

ius, one of his enemies, asked by what wisdom, or by what 
precepts of philosophy, Seneca had been able, during four 
years of imperial favor, to amass the immense sum of three 
hundred thousand sestertia* 

Seneca perceived the gathering clouds of jealousy and 
envy, and saw that his sovereign himself, whose vices were 
now becoming too imperious to endure restraint, was disposed 
to listen to the whispers of obloquy. In hopes of escaping 
the destruction which threatened him, he earnestly requested 
the emperor's permission to withdraw from the court, and de- 
vote the remainder of his days to philosophy ; he even offer- 
ed to refund the immense treasures which royal bounty had 
lavished upon him, and to retire with a bare competency. 
Nero rejected his proposal, and assured him of the continu- 
ance of his favor; but the philosopher knew the emperor's 
disposition too well to rely upon his promises. From this 
time Seneca declined all ceremonious visits, avoided compa- 
ny, and, under the pretence of indisposition, or a desire of 
prosecuting his studies, confined himself almost entirely to 
his own house. 

It was not long before Seneca was convinced that in dis- 
trusting a tyrant, whose mind was wholly occupied by suspi- 
cion, he had acted prudently. Antonins Natalis, who had 
been concerned in the conspiracy of Piso, upon his examina- 
tion, in order to court the favor of Nero, or perhaps even at 
his instigation, mentioned Seneca among the number of the 
conspirators. This single evidence was by the tyrant deemed 
sufficient against the man to whom he had been indebted for 
his education, and whom he had called his friend. To give 
some color to the accusation, Natalis pretended that he had 
been sent by Piso to visit Seneca whilst he was sick, and to 
complain of his having refused to see Piso, who as a friend 
might have expected free access to him upon all occasions ; 
and that Seneca in reply, had said, that frequent conversa- 

* £2,4-21,875. 



SENECA. 301 

tions could be of no service to either party, but that he con- 
sidered his own safety as involved in that of Piso. Granius 
Sylvanus, tribune of the pretorian cohort, was sent to ask 
Seneca whether he recollected what had passed between 
himself and Natalis. Seneca, whether by accident or design 
is uncertain, had that day left Campania, and was at his 
country seat, about four miles from the city. In the evening, 
while he was at supper with his wife Paulina and two friends, 
the tribune, attended by a military band, came to the house, 
and after giving the soldiers orders to surround it, delivered 
the emperor's message. Seneca's answer was, that he had 
received a complaint from Piso, of his having refused to see 
him ; and that the state of his health, which required repose, 
had been his apology. He added, that he saw no reason why 
he should prefer the safety of any other individual to his own ; 
and that no one was better acquainted than Nero with his 
independent spirit. 

This reply kindled the emperor's indignation, and he asked 
the messenger whether Seneca discovered any intention of 
putting an end to his own life. The tribune assured him 
that there was no appearance, either of terror or of distress in 
his countenance or language. Upon this the tyrant, who felt 
his own pusillanimity reproached by the constancy of the phi- 
losopher, ordered him to return without delay to Seneca, 
with his peremptory command immediately to put himself to 
death. Sylvanus, who had himself been one of the conspira- 
tors, had not the courage to meet the face of Seneca upon 
such an embassy, but sent the fatal message by one of his 
centurions. The philosopher received it with perfect com- 
posure, and asked permission of the officer to alter his will. 
This indulgence being refused him, he turned to his friends, 
and requested, that, since he was not allowed to leave them 
any other legacy, they would preserve in their memory a 
portrait of his life, as a perpetual monument of friendship. At 
the same time he restrained their tears, and exorted them to 

26 



SENECA. 

exercise that fortitude which they had professed to learn in 
the school of philosophy. " Where are now," said he, " our 
boasted precepts of wisdom? where the armor which we 
have been so many years providing against adverse fate ? 
Who among us has been a stranger to the savage spirit of 
Nero ? After murdering his mother and his brother, it was 
not to be expected that he would spare his preceptor." 

Having conversed in this manner for some time with his 
friends, Seneca embraced his wife, and earnestly entreated her 
to moderate her grief, and after his death to console herself 
with the recollection of his virtues ; but Paulina refused every 
consolation, except that of dying with her husband, and earn- 
estly solicited the friendly hand of the executioner. Seneca, 
after expressing his admiration of his wife's fortitude, proceeded 
to obey the emperor's fatal mandate, by opening a vein in each 
arm ; but, through his advanced age, the vital stream flowed 
so reluctantly, that it was necessary also to open the veins of 
his legs. Still finding his strength exhausted without any 
prospect of a speedy release, in order to alleviate, if possible, 
the anguish of his wi£e, who was a spectator of the scene, and 
to save himself the torture of witnessing her distress, he per- 
suaded her to withdraw to another chamber. In this situation, 
Seneca, with wonderful recollection and self-command, dic- 
tated many philosophical reflections to his secretary. After a 
long interval, his friend Statius Annaeus, to whom he complain- 
ed of the tedious delay of death, administered to him a strong 
dose of poison ; but even this, through the feeble state of his 
vital powers, produced little effect. At last, he ordered the at- 
tendants to convey him into a warm bath ; and, as he entered, 
he sprinkled those who stood near, saying, " I offer this liba- 
tion to Jupiter the Deliverer." Then, plunging into the bath, 
he was soon suffocated. His body was consumed, according to 
his own express order in a will which he had made in the 
height of his prosperity, without any funeral pomp. 

Such was the end of Seneca, an end not unworthy the pur- 
est and best principles of the Stoic philosophy. 



SIMON. SIMON MAGUS. 303 



SIMOX. 

Simon, was an Athenian leather-dresser. Whenever Soc- 
rates came into his workshop and conversed, he used to make 
memorandums of all his sayings that he recollected. From 
this circumstance people have called his dialogues leathern 
ones. 

He is, as some people say, the first writer who reduced the 
conversations of Socrates into the form of dialogues. And 
when Pericles offered to provide for him, and invited him to 
come to him, he said he would not sell his freedom of speech. 



SIMON MAGUS. 



Simon Magus, who is commonly understood to have been 
the person mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, was by birth 
a Samaritan, and in his native country practiced magical arts, 
which procured him many followers. According to the usual 
practice of the Asiatics at this time, he visited Egypt, and 
there, probably, became acquainted with the sublime myste- 
ries taught in the Alexandrian school, and learned those theur- 
gic or magical operations, by means of which it was believed 
that men might be delivered from the power of evil demons. 
Upon his return into his own country, the author of the " Clem- 
entine Recognitions" relates that he imposed upon his coun- 
trymen by his pretensions to supernatural powers. And St. 
Luke attests, that this artful fanatic, using sorcery, had be- 
witched the people of Samaria, giving out that he was some 
Great One ; and that he obtained such general attention and 
reverence in Samaria, that the people all gave heed to him 
from the least to the greatest, saying, " This man is the Great 
Power of God." 



304 SOCRATES. 

From the nature of the philosophy which, at this period, 
was taught hoth in Asia and Egypt, and in which Simon had, 
doubtless, been instructed, it may be reasonably concluded 
that he pretended to be an iEon of the first order, or one of 
the most exalted of those substantial powers, or divine immor- 
tal natures, which were supposed to have emanated from the 
eternal fountain of the Supreme Deity. He boasted, that he 
was sent down from heaven, among men, to chastise and sub- 
due those evil demons, by whose malignant influence the disor- 
ders and miseries of human nature were produced, and to con- 
duct them to the highest felicity. To his wife Helena he also 
ascribed a similar kind of divine nature, pretending that a 
female iEon inhabited the body of this woman, to whom he 
gave the name of Wisdom ; Avhence some Christian fathers 
have said, that he called her the Holy Spirit. 



SOCRATES. 



Socrates was the son of Sophronicus, a statuary, and of 
Phasnarete, a midwife. He was a citizen of Athens. 

Some people believed that he assisted Euripides in his poems ; 
in reference to which idea, Moresimachus speaks as follows: — 

The Phrygians are a new play of Euripides, 
But Socrates has laid the main foundation. 

And again he says : — 

Euripides : patched up by Socrates. 

And Callias, in his Captives, says : — 

Ji. Are you so proud, giving yourself such airs ? 
B. And well I may, for Socrates is the cause. 

And Aristophanes says, in his Clouds : — 

This is Euripides, who doth compose 
Those argumentative wise tragedies. 



SOCRATES. 305 

But, having been a pupil of Anaxagoras, as some people 
say, but of Damon as the other story goes, related by Alex- 
ander in his Successions, after the condemnation of Anaxa- 
goras, he became a disciple of Archelaus, the natural philoso- 
pher. And, indeed, Aristoxenns says that he was very inti- 
mate -with him. 

But Duris says that he was a slave, and employed in carving 
stones. And some say that the Graces in the Acropolis are 
his work; and they are clothed figures. And that it is in 
reference to this that Timon says, in his Silli : — 

From them proceeded the stone polisher, 
The reasoning legislator, the enchanter 
Of all the Greeks, making them subtle arguers, 
A cunning pedant, a shrewd Attic quibbler. 

For he was very clever in all rhetorical exercises, as 
Idomenens also assures us. But the thirty tyrants forbade 
him to give lessons in the art of speaking and arguing, as 
Xenophon tells us. And Aristophanes turns him into ridicule 
in his Comedies, as making the worse appear the better reason. 
For he was the first man, as Phavorinus says in his Universal 
History, who, in conjunction with his disciple iEschines, 
taught men how to become orators. And Idomenens makes 
the same assertion in his essay on the Socratic School. He, 
likewise, was the first person who conversed about human 
life ; and also was the first philosopher who was condemned 
to death and executed. And Aristoxenns, the son of Spin- 
tharas, says that he lent money in usury : and that he collect- 
ed the interest and principal together, and then, when he had 
got the interest, he lent it out again. And Demetrius, of 
Byzantium, says that it \vas Criton who made him leave his 
workshop and instruct men, out of the admiration which he 
conceived for his abilities. 

He then, perceiving that natural philosophy had no imme- 
diate bearing on our interests, began to enter upon moral 
26* 



306 SOCRATES. 

speculations, both in his workshop and in the market-place. 
And he said that the objects of his search were — 

Whatever good or harm can man befall 
In his own house. 

And very often, while arguing and discussing points that arose, 
he was treated with great violence and beaten, and pulled 
about, and laughed at and ridiculed by the multitude. But 
he bore all this with great equanimity. So that once, when 
he had been kicked and buffeted about, and had borne it all 
patiently, and some one expressed his surprise, he said, " Sup- 
pose an ass had kicked me, would you have had me bring an 
action against him ?" And this is the account of Demetrius. 

But he had no need of travelling (though most philosophers 
did travel), except when he was bound to serve in the army. 
But all the rest of his life he remained in the same place, and 
in an argumentative spirit he used to dispute with all who 
would converse with him, not with the purpose of taking 
away their opinions from them, so much as of learning the 
truth, as far as he could do so, himself. And they say that 
Euripides gave him a small work of Heraclitus to read, and 
asked him afterwards what he thought of it, and he replied, 
" What I have understood is good ; and so, I think, what I 
have not understood is ; only the book requires a Delian diver 
to get at the meaning of it." He paid great attention also to the 
training of the body, and was always in excellent condition him- 
self. Accordingly, he joined in the expedition to Amphipolis, 
and he it was who took up and saved Xenophon in the battle 
of Delian, when he had fallen from his horse ; for Avhen all 
the Athenians had fled, he retreated quietly, turning round 
slowly, and watching to repel any one who attacked him. He 
also joined in the expedition to Potidsea, which was under- 
taken by sea ; for it was impossible to get there by land, as 
the war impeded the communication. And they say that on 
this occasion he remained the whole night in one place ; and 



SOCRATE8. 307 

that though lie had deserved the prize of pre-eminent valor, 
he yielded it to Alcibiades, to whom Aristippus, in the fourth 
book of his treatise on the Luxury of the Ancients, says that 
he was greatly attached. 

He was a man of great firmness of mind, and very much 
attached to the democracy, as was plain from his not submit- 
ting to Critias, when he ordered him to bring Leon of Salamis, 
a very rich man, before the thirty, for the purpose of being 
murdered. And he alone voted for the acquittal of the ten 
generals ;* and when it was in his power to escape out of 
prison he would not do it ; and he reproved those who be- 
wailed his fate, and even while in prison, he delivered those 
beautiful discourses which we still possess. 

He was a contented and venerable man. And once, when 
Alcibiades offered him a large piece of ground to build a 
house upon, he said, " But if I wanted shoes, and you had 
given me a piece of leather to make myself shoes, I should 
be laughed at if I took it." And often, when he beheld the 
multitude of things which were being sold, he would say to 
himself, " How many things there are which I do not want." 
And he was continually repeating these iambics : — 

For silver plate and purple useful are 
For actors on the stage, but not for men. 

And he showed his scorn of Archelaus the Macedonian, and 
Scopas the Crononian, and Eurylochus of Larissa, when he 
refused to accept their money, and to go and visit them. And 
he was so regular in his way of living, that it happened more 
than once when there was a plague at Athens, that he was 
the only person who did not catch it. 

Aristotle says that he had two wives. The first was 
Xanthippe, by whom he had a son named Lamprocles ; the 
second was Myrto, the daughter of Aristides the Just ; and he 
took her without any dowry, and by her he had two sons, 

* After the battle of Arginusae. 



308 SOCRATES. 

Sophroniscus and Menexenus. But some say that Myrto was 
his first wife. And some, among whom are Satyrus, and 
Hieronymus, of Ehodes, say that he had them hoth at the 
same time. For they say that the Athenians, on account of 
the scarcity of men, passed a vote with the view of increasing 
the population, that a man might marry one citizen, and 
might also have children by another who should be legitimate ; 
on which account Socrates did so. 

And he was a man able to look down upon any who 
mocked him. And he prided himself upon the simplicity of 
his way of life ; and never exacted any pay from his pupils. 
And he used to say, that the man who ate with the greatest 
appetite, had the least need of delicacies ; and that he who 
drank with the greatest appetite, was the least inclined to look 
for a draught which is not at hand ; and that those who want 
fewest things are nearest to the Gods. And thus much, in- 
deed, one may learn from the comic poets ; who, without per- 
ceiving it, praise him in the very matters for which they rid- 
icule him. Aristophanes speaks thus : — 

Prudent man, who thus with justice long for mighty wisdom, 

Happiness will be your lot in Athens, and all Greece too ; 

For you 've a noble memory, and plenty of invention, 

And patience dwells within your mind, and you are never tired, 

Whether you 're standing still or walking ; and you care not for cold, 

Nor do you long for breakfast time, nor e'er give in to hunger, 

But wine and gluttony you shun, and all such kind of follies. 

And Ameipsias introduces him on the stage in a cloak, and 
speaks thus of him : — 

O Socrates, among few men the best, 

And among many vainest ; here at last 

You come to us courageously— but where, 

Where did you get that cloak ? so strange a garment, 

Some leather cutter must have given you 

By way of joke: and yet this worthy man, 

Though ne'er so hungry, never flatters any one. 

Aristophanes, too, exposes his contemptuous and arrogant 
disposition, speaking thus : — 



5 OCR A T E 5 . 309 

You strut along the streets, and look around you proudly, 
And barefoot many ills endure, and hold your head above us. 

And yet, sometimes he adapted himself to the occasion and 
dressed handsomely. As, for instance, in the banquet of 
Plato, -where he is represented as going to find Agathon. 

He was a man of great ability, both in exhorting men to, 
and dissuading them from, any course ; as, for instance, hav- 
ing discoursed with Thaetetus on the subject of knowledge, 
he sent him away almost inspired, as Plato says. When Eu- 
thyphron had commenced a prosecution against his father for 
having killed a foreigner, he conversed with him on the sub- 
ject of piety, and turned him from his purpose ; and by his 
exhortations he made Lysis a most moral man. For he was 
very ingenious at deriving arguments from existing circum- 
stances. And so he mollified his son Lamprocles wl^en he 
was very angry with his mother, and he wrought upon Glau- 
son, the brother of Plato, who was desirous to meddle with 
affairs of State, and induced him to abandon his purpose, be- 
cause of his want of experience in such matters. And, on 
the contrary, he persuaded Charmidas to devote himself to 
politics, because he was a man very well calculated for such 
business. He also inspired Iphicrates, the general, with cour- 
age, by showing him the gamecocks of Midias the barber, 
pluming themselves against those of Callias ; and Glauernides 
said, that the State ought to keep him carefully, as if he were 
a pheasant or a peacock. He used also to say, that M it was 
a strange thing that every one could easily tell what prop- 
erty he had, but was not able to name all his friends, or even 
to tell their number ; so careless were men on that subject." 
Once when he saw Euclid exceedingly anxious about some 
dialectic arguments, he said to him, " O Euclid, you will ac- 
quire a power of managing sophists, but not of governing 
men." For he thought that subtle hair-splitting on those 
subjects was quite useless. 

TVhen Charmidas offered him some slaves, with the view 



310 SOCRATES. 

to his making a profit of them, he would not have them ; and 
as some people say, he paid no regard to the beauty of Alci- 
biades. 

He used to praise leisure as the most valuable of possessions. 
And it was a saying of his that there was one only good, 
namely, knowledge; and one only evil, namely, ignorance ; 
that riches and high birth had nothing estimable in them, 
but that, on the contrary, they were wholly evil. Accord- 
ingly, when some one told him that the mother of Antis- 
thenes was a Thracian woman, " Did you suppose," said he, 
" that so noble a man must be born of two Athenians ?" 
And when Phsedo was reduced to a state of slavery, he or- 
dered Crito to ransom him, and taught him, and made him a 
philosopher. 

He used to learn to play on the lyre when he had time, 
saying, " It is not absurd to learn anything that one does not 
know ;" and further, he used frequently to dance, thinking such 
an exercise good for the health of the body. 

He used also to say that the dsemon foretold the future to 
Iihii ;* and that to begin well was not a trifling thing, but yet 
not far from a trifling thing; and that he knew nothing, ex- 
cept the fact of his ignorance. Another saying of his was, 
that " those who bought things out of season, at an extrava- 
gant price, expected never to live till the proper season for 
them." Once, when he was asked what was the virtue of a 
young man, he said, " To avoid excess in everything." And 
he used to say, that it was necessary to learn geometry only 
so far as might enable a man to measure land for the purposes 
of buying and selling. And when Euripides, in his Augur, 
had spoken thus of virtue : — 

'T is best to leave these subjects undisturbed ; 

* " This is not quite correct. Socrates believed that the demon which at- 
tended him, limited his warnings to his own conduct ; preventing him from 
doing what was wrong, but not prompting him to do right."— See Gfrote's ad- 
mirable chapter on Socrates. History of Oreeee, vol. v. 



SOCRATES. 311 

he rose up and left the theatre, saying that " It was an absurd- 
ity to think it right to seek for a slave if one could not find 
him, but to let virtue be altogether disregarded." The ques- 
tion was once put to him by a man whether he would advise 
him to marry or not ? And he replied, " Whichever you do, 
you will repent it." He often said, that he wondered at those 
who made stone statues, when he saw how careful they were 
that the stone should be like the man it was intended to rep- 
resent, but how careless they were of themselves, as to 
guarding against being like the stone. He used also to recom- 
mend young men to be constantly looking in the glass, in order 
that, if they were handsome, they might be worthy of their 
beauty ; and if they were ugly, they might conceal their un- 
sightly appearance by their accomplishments. He once in- 
vited some rich men to dinner, and when Xanthippe was 
ashamed of their insufficient appointments, he said, "Be of 
good cheer ; for if our guests are sensible men, they will bear 
with us ; and if they are not, we need not care about them." 
He used to say.' " That other men lived to eat, but that he 
ate to live." Another saying of his was, " That to have a re- 
gard for the worthless multitude, was like the case of a man 
who refused to take one piece of money of four drachmas as 
if it were bad, and then took a heap of such coin and admit- 
ted them to be good." When iEschines said, " I am a poor 
man, and having nothing else, but I give you myself ;" " Do 
you not," he replied, " perceive that you are giving me what 
is of the greatest value ?" He said to some one, who was ex- 
pressing indignation at being overlooked when the thirty had 
seized on the supreme power, " Do you, then, repent of not 
being a tyrant too ?" A man said to him, " The Athenians 
have condemned you to death." " And nature," he replied, 
4' has condemned them." But some attribute this answer to 
Anaxagoras. When his wife said to him, " You die undeserv- 
edly." "Would you, then," he rejoined, "have had me 



312 SOCRATES. 

deserve death ?" He thought once that some one appeared to 
him in a dream, and said : — 

On the third day you 'II come to lovely Phthia. 

And so he said to iEschines, " In three days I shall die." And 
when he was about to drink the hemlock, Apollodorus pre- 
sented him with a handsome robe, that he might expire in it ; 
and he said, " Why was my own dress good enough to live in, 
and not good enough to die in?" When a person said to him, 
" Such an one speaks ill of you ;" " To be sure," said he, " for 
he has never learnt to speak well." When Antisthenes turned 
the ragged side of his cloak to the light, he said, " I see your 
silly vanity through the holes in your cloak." When some one 
said to him, u Does not that man abuse you?" " No," said he, 
" for that does not apply to me." It was a saying of his, too, 
" That it is a good thing for a man to offer himself cheerfully 
to the attacks of the comic writers; for then, if they say any- 
thing worth hearing, one will be able to mend ; and if they do 
not, then all they say is unimportant." 

He said once to Xanthippe, who first abused him, and then 
threw water at him, " Did I not say that Xanthippe was 
thundering now, and would soon rain ?" When Alcibiades 
said to him, " The abusive temper of Xanthippe is intolerable ;" 
"But I," he rejoined, " am used to it, just as I should be if I 
were always hearing the noise of a pulley; and you yourself 
endure to hear geese cackling." To which Alcibiades answered, 
" Yes, but they bring me eggs and goslings." u Well," rejoined 
Socrates, "and Xanthippe brings me children." Once, she 
attacked him in the market-place, and tore his cloak off; his 
friends advised him to keep her off with his hands ; " Yes, by 
Jove," said he, " that while we are boxing you may all cry out, 
1 Well done, Socrates, well done, Xanthippe.' " And he used 
to say, that one ought to live with a restive woman, just as 
horsemen manage violent-tempered horses ; " and as they," 
said he, " when they have once mastered them, are easily 



SOCRATES. 313 

able to manage all others; so I, after managing Xanthippe, 
can easily live with any one else whatever." 

It was in consequence of such sayings and actions as these, 
that the priestess at Delphi was witness in his favor, when 
she gave Chaarephon this answer, which is so universally 
known : — 

Socrates of all mortals is the wisest. 

in consequence of which answer, he incurred great envy ; and 
he brought envy also on himself, by convicting men who gave 
themselves airs of folly and ignorance, as undoubtedly he did 
to Antyus ; and as is shown in Plato's Meno. For he, not 
being able to bear Socrates' jesting, first of all set Aristophanes 
to attack him, and then persuaded Melitus to institute a prose- 
cution against him, on the ground of impiety and of corrupt- 
ing the youth of the city. Accordingly, Melitus did institute 
a prosecution ; Polyeuctus pronounced the sentence. Polyc- 
rates, the sophist, wrote the speech which was delivered. 
And Lycon, the demagogue, prepared everything necessary to 
support the impeachment ; but Antisthenes in his Success- 
ions of the Philosophers, and Plato in his Apology, say that 
these men brought the accusation : — Anytus, and Lycon, and 
Melitus; Anytus, acting against him on behalf of the magis- 
trates, and because of his political principles ; Lycon, on be- 
half of the orators ; and Melitus on behalf of the poets, all of 
w r hom Socrates used to pull to pieces. But Phavorinus, in the 
first book of his Commentaries, says, that the speech of Poly- 
crates against Socrates is not the genuine one ; for in it there 
is mention made of the walls having been restored by Conon, 
which took place six years after the death of Socrates ; and 
certainly this is true. 

But the sworn informations, on which the trial proceeded, 
were drawn up in this fashion ; for they are preserved to this 
day, says Phavorinus, in the temple of Cybele : — " Melitus, 
the son of Melitus, of Pittea, impeaches Socrates, the son of 
Sophroniscus, of Alopece : Socrates is guilty, inasmuch as he 

27 



314 SOCRATES. 

does not believe in the Gods whom the city worships, but in- 
troduces other strange deities ; he is also guilty, inasmuch as 
he corrupts the young men, and the punishment he has in- 
curred is death." 

But the philosopher, after Lysias had prepared a defence 
for him, read it through, and said — " It is a very fine speech, 
Lysias, but is not suitable for me ; for it was manifestly the 
speech of a lawyer, rather than of a philosopher." And when 
Lysias replied, " How is it possible, that if it is a good speech, 
it should not be suitable to you?" he said, "Just as fine 
clothes and handsome shoes would not be suitable to me." 
And when the trial was proceeding, Justus, of Tiberias, in his 
Garland, says that Plato ascended the tribune and said, " I, 
men of Athens, being the youngest of all those who have 
mounted the tribune . . ." and that he was interrupted 
by the judges, who cried out, " Come down." 

So when he had been condemned by two hundred and 
eighty-one votes, being six more than were given in his favor, 
and when the judges were making an estimate of what punish- 
ment or fine should be inflicted on him, he said that he ought 
to be fined five and twenty drachmas ; but Eubulides says that 
he admitted that -he deserved a fine of one hundred. And 
when the judges raised an outcry at this proposition, he said, 
" My real opinion is, that as a return for what has been done 
by me, I deserve a maintenance in the Prytaneum for the rest 
of my life." So they condemned him to death, by eighty 
votes more than they had originally found him guilty. And 
he was put into prison, and a few days afterwards he drank 
the hemlock, having held many admirable conversations in 
the meantime, which Plato has recorded in the Phaado. 

So he died ; but the Athenians immediately repented* of 

their action, so that they closed all the palaestra and gymnasia ; 

and they banished his accusers, and condemned Melitus to 

death ; but they honored Socrates with a brazen statue, which 

* Grote gives good reasons for disbelieving this. 



SOCRATES. 315 

they erected in the place where the sacred vessels are kept ; 
and it was the work of Lysippus. But Anytus had already 
left Athens ; and the people of Heraclea banished him from 
that city the day of his arrival. Bnt Socrates was not the 
only person who met with this treatment at the hands of the 
Athenians, but many other men received the same ; for they 
fined Homer fifty drachmas as a madman, and they said that 
Iystseus was out of his wits. But they honored Astydamas, 
before ^Eschylus, with a brazen statue. And Euripides re- 
proaches them for their conduct in his Palamedes, saying — 

Ye have slain, ye have slain, 

O Greeks, the all-wise nightingale, 

The favorite" of the Muses, guiltless all. 

But Philochorus says that Euripides died before Socrates. 

Aristotle tells us that a certain one of the magi came from 
Syria to Athens and blamed Socrates for many parts of his 
conduct, and also foretold that he would come to a violent 
death ; and we ourselves have written this epigram on him : — 

Drink now, O Socrates, in the realms of Jove, 
For truly did the God pronounce you wise, 
And he who said so is himself all wisdom ; 
You drank the poison which your country gave, 
But they drank wisdom from your God-like voice. 

Bruckers account of this distinguished man is as follows : 
Socrates, by his penetrating judgment, exalted views, and 
liberal spirit, united with exemplary integrity, and purity of 
manners, is acknowledged, by the unanimous suffrage of an- 
tiquity, to have obtained the first place among philosophers. 
He was born at Alopeces, a village near Athens, in the fourth 
year of the seventy -seventh Olympiad. His parents were of 
low rank. Sophroniscus brought up his son, contrary to his 
inclination, in his own manual employment ; in which Soc- 
rates, though his mind was continually aspiring after higher 
objects, was not unsuccessful Whilst he was a young man, 
he is said to have formed statues of the habited Graces, 



316 SOCRATES. 

which were allowed a place in the citadel of Athens. Upon 
the death of his father, he was left with no other inheritance 
than the small sum of eighty mince, which, through the dis- 
honesty of a relation, to whom Sophroniscus left the charge 
of his affairs, he soon lost. This laid him under the neces- 
sity of supporting himself by labor ; and he continued to 
practice the art of statuary in Athens ; at the same time, 
however, devoting all the leisure he could command to the 
study of philosophy. 

Crito, a wealthy Athenian, remarking the strong propen- 
sity towards study which this young man discovered, and ad- 
miring his ingenious disposition and distinguished abilities, 
generously took him under his patronage, and entrusted him 
with the instruction of his children. The opportunities 
which Socrates by this means enjoyed of attending the pub- 
lic lectures of the most eminent philosophers, so far in- 
creased his thirst after wisdom, that he determined to relin- 
quish his occupation, and every prospect of emolument which 
that might afford, in order to devote himself entirely to his 
favorite pursuits. His first preceptor in philosophy was An- 
axagoras. After this eminent master in the Ionic school 
left Athens, Socrates attached himself to Archelaus. Under 
these instructors he diligently prosecuted the study of nature, 
in the usual manner of the philosophers of the age, and be- 
came well acquainted with their doctrines. Prodicus, the 
sophist, was his preceptor in eloquence, Evenus in poetry, 
Theodoras in geometry, and Damo in music. Aspasia, a wo- 
man no less celebrated for her intellectual than her personal 
accomplishments, whose house was frequented by the most 
celebrated characters, had also some share in the education of 
Socrates. 

Thus furnished with preceptors of every kind, Socrates ac- 
quired that knowledge at home, which the Greeks had hith- 
erto sought in foreign countries ; but for which, after all, they 
were more indebted to their own ingenuity and industry, 



SOCRATES. 317 

than to the instructions of the Oriental or Egyptian priests. 
It cannot be reasonably doubted that, with such advantages, 
he became master of every kind of learning, which the age in 
which he lived could afford. 

With these uncommon endowments, both natural and ac- 
quired, Socrates appeared in Athens, under the respectable 
characters of a good citizen and a true philosopher. Being 
called upon by his country to take up arms in the long and 
severe struggle between Athens and Sparta, he signalized 
himself at the siege of Potidaaa, both by his valor, and by the 
hardiness with which he endured fatigue. During the sever- 
ity of a Thracian winter whilst others were clad in furs, he 
wore only his usual clothing, and walked barefoot upon the 
ice. In an engagement in which he saw Alcibiades (a young 
man of noble rank whom he accompanied during this expedi- 
tion) falling down wounded, he advanced to defend him, and 
saved both him and his arms ; and though the prize of valor 
was, on this occasion, unquestionably due to Socrates, he 
generously gave his vote that it might be bestowed upon Al- 
cibiades, to encourage his rising merit. Several years after- 
wards, Socrates voluntarily entered upon a military expedi- 
tion against the Boeotians, during which, in an unsuccessful 
engagement at Delium, he retired with great coolness from 
the field ; when, observing Xenophon lying wounded upon 
the ground, he took him upon his shoulders and bore him out 
of the reach of the enemy. Soon afterwards he went out a 
third time, in a military capacity, in the expedition for the 
purpose of reducing A mphipolis ; but this proving unsuccess- 
ful, he returned to Athens, and remained there till his death. 

It was 'not till Socrates was upwards of fifty-six years of age 
that he undertook to serve his country in any civil office. At 
that age, he was chosen to represent his own district in the 
senate of 'fix. e hundred. In this office, though he at first ex- 
posed himself to some degree of ridicule from the want of ex- 
perience in the forms of business, he soon convinced his col- 
27* 



318 SOCRATES. 

leagues that he was superior to them all in wisdom and integ- 
rity. Whilst they, intimidated by the clamors of the popu- 
lace, passed an unjust sentence of condemnation upon the 
commanders who, after the engagement at the Arginusian 
islands, had been prevented by a storm from paying funeral 
honors to the dead, Socrates stood forth singly in their de- 
fence, and, to the last, refused to give his suffrage against 
them, declaring that no force should compel him to act con- 
trary to justice and the laws. Under the subsequent tyranny, 
he never ceased to condemn the oppressive and cruel proceed- 
ings of the Thirty Tyrants ; and when his boldness provoked 
their resentment, so that his life was in hazard, fearing neither 
treachery nor violence, he still continued to support, with un- 
daunted firmness, the rights of his fellow-citizens. The ty- 
rants, probably that they might create some new ground of 
complaint against Socrates, sent an order to him, with several 
other persons, to apprehend a wealthy citizen of Salamis ; the 
rest executed the commission ; but Socrates refused, saying 
that he would rather himself suffer death than be instrument- 
al in inflicting it unjustly upon another. 

These proofs of public virtue, both in a military and civil 
capacity, are sufficient to entitle the name of Socrates to a 
distinguished place in the catalogue of good citizens. But his 
first honors arise from the manner in which he supported the 
character of a philosopher, and discharged the duties of a 
moral preceptor. 

Observing, with regret, how much the opinions of the 
Athenian youth were misled, and their principles and taste 
corrupted by philosophers, who spent all their time in refined 
speculations upon nature and the origin of things, and by 
sophists, who taught in their schools the arts of false eloquence 
and deceitful reasoning, Socrates formed the wise and gen- 
erous design of instituting a new and more useful method of 
instruction. He justly conceived the true end of philosophy 
to be, not to make an ostentatious display of superior learning 



SOCRATES. 319 

and ability in subtle disputations or ingenious conjectures, but 
to free mankind from the dominion of pernicious prejudices ; 
to correct their vices ; to inspire them with the love of virtue, 
and thus conduct them in the path of wisdom to true felicity. 
He therefore assumed the character of a moral philosopher ; 
and, looking upon the whole city of Athens as his school, and 
all who were disposed to lend him their attention as his pupils, 
he seized every occasion of communicating moral wisdom to 
his fellow-citizens. He passed his time chiefly in public. It 
was his custom in the morning to visit the places made use of 
for walking and public exercises ; at noon, to appear among 
the crowds in the markets or courts, and to spend the rest of 
the day in those parts of the city which were most frequented. 
Sometimes he collected an audience about him in the Lyceum, 
(a pleasant meadow on the border of the river Ilyssus,) where 
he delivered a discourse from the chair, whilst his auditors were 
seated on benches around him. At other times he conversed, 
in a less formal way, with any of his fellow-citizens in places 
of common resort, or with his friends at meals, or in their 
hours of amusement ; thus making every place to which he 
came a school of virtue. Not only did young men of rank 
and fortune attend upon his lectures, but he sought for dis- 
ciples even among mechanics and laborers. 

The method of instruction which Socrates chiefly made use 
of, was to propose a series of questions to the person with 
whom he conversed, in order to lead him to some unforeseen 
conclusion. He first gained the cousent of his respondent to 
some obvious truths, and then obliged him to admit others, 
from their relation, or resemblance, to those to which they 
had already assented. Without making use of any direct 
argument or persuasion, he chose to lead the person he meant 
to instruct to deduce the truths of which he wished to con- 
vince him as a necessary consequence from his own conces- 
sions. He commonly conducted these conferences with such 
address, as to conceal his design till the respondent had ad- 



320 SOCRATES. 

vanced too far to recede. On some occasions he made use of 
ironical language, that vain men might be caught in their own 
replies, and be obliged to confess their ignorance. He never 
assumed the air of a morose and rigid preceptor, but com- 
municated useful instruction with all the ease and pleasantry 
of polite conversation. 

Socrates was not less distinguished by his modesty than by 
his wisdom. His discourses betray no marks of arrogance or 
vanity. He professed '• to know only this, that he knew 
nothing." In this declaration, which he frequently repeated, 
he had no other intention than to convince his hearers of the 
narrow limits of the human understanding. Nothing was 
farther from his thoughts than to encourage universal scepti- 
cism : on moral subjects he always expressed himself with 
confidence and decision ; but he was desirous of exposing to 
contempt the arrogance of those pretenders to science who 
would acknowledge themselves ignorant of nothing. The 
truth was, that Socrates, though eminently furnished, as we 
have already seen, with every kind of learning, preferred 
moral to speculative wisdom. Convinced that philosophy is 
valuable, not as it furnishes questions for the schools, but as it 
provides men with a law of life, he censured his predecessors 
for spending all their time in abstruse researches into nature, 
and taking no pains to render themselves useful to mankind. 
His favorite maxim was, " Whatever is above us, doth not 
concern us." He estimated the value of knowledge by its 
utility, and recommended the study of geometry, astronomy, 
and other sciences, only so far as they admit of a practical ap- 
plication to the purposes of human life. His great object, in 
all his conferences and discourses, was to lead men into an 
acquaintance with themselves; to convince them of their 
follies and vices ; to inspire them with the love of virtue ; and 
to furnish them with useful moral instruction. Cicero might, 
therefore, very justly say to Socrates, that he was the first 
who called down Philosophy from heaven to earth, and in- 



SOCRATES. 321 

troduced her into the public walks and domestic retirements 
of men, that she might instruct them concerning life ancl 
manners. 

The moral lessons which Socrates taught, he himself dili- 
gently practiced ; whence he excelled other philosophers in 
personal merit no less than in his method of instruction. His 
conduct was uniformly such as became a teacher of modern 
wisdom. 

Through his whole life, this good man discovered a mind 
superior to the attractions of wealth and power. Contrary to 
the general practice of the preceptors of his time, he instruct- 
ed his pupils without receiving from them any gratuity. He 
frequently refused rich presents, which were offered him by 
Alcibiades and others, though importunately urged to accept 
them by his wife. The chief men of Athens were his stew- 
ards ; they sent him in provisions, as they apprehended he 
wanted them : he took what his present wants required, and 
returned the rest. With Socrates moderation supplied the 
place of wealth. In his clothing and food he consulted only 
the demands of nature. He commonly appeared in a neat, 
but plain cloak, with his feet uncovered. Though his table 
was only supplied with simple fare, he did not scruple to invite 
men of superior rank to partake of his meals. He found by 
experience that temperance is the parent of health. It was 
owing to his perfect regularity in this respect that he escaped 
infection in the midst of the plague, which proved so fatal to 
his fellow-citizens. 

Socrates was a great admirer of a fair external form, as the 
index of a mind possessed, or at least capable, of moral beauty, 
and conversed freely with young persons, of both sexes, in 
order to assist their progress in wisdom and virtue ; but his 
enemies have never been able to fix upon him the stain of in- 
continence. Modern calumnies, which impute to this great 
man vices, with which he was never charged by his contem- 
poraries, ought to be treated with universal contempt. 



322 



SO CRATES. 



Though Socrates was exceedingly unfortunate in his domes- 
tic connection, he converted this infelicity into an occasion of 
exercising his virtues. Xanthippe, concerning whose ill-humor 
ancient writers relate many amusing tales, was certainly a 
woman of a high and unmanageable spirit. But Socrates, 
whilst he endeavored to curb the violence of her temper, im- 
proved his own. When Alcibiades expressed his surprise that 
his friend could bear to live in the same house with so per- 
verse and quarrelsome a companion, Socrates replied, " That 
being daily inured to ill-humor at home, he was the better 
prepared to encounter perverseness and injury abroad." After 
all, however, it is probable that the infirmities of this good 
woman have been exaggerated, and that calumny has had 
some hand in finishing her picture ; for Socrates himself, in a 
dialogue with his son Lamprocles, allows her many domestic 
virtues ; and we find her afterwards expressing great affection 
for her husband during his imprisonment. She must have 
been as deficient in understanding, as she was fro ward in dis- 
position, if she had not profited by the daily lessons which for 
twenty years she received from such a master. 

In the midst of domestic vexations and public disorders, 
Socrates retained such an unruffled serenity, that he was never 
seen either to leave his own house, or to return home, with a 
disturbed countenance. If upon any occasion he felt a pro- 
pensity towards anger, he checked the rising storm by lower- 
ing the tone of his voice, and resolutely assuming a more than 
usual gentleness of aspect and manner. He not only refrained 
from acts of revenge, but triumphed over his adversaries, by 
despising the insults and injuries which they offered him. In 
all situations, as will more fully appear in the sequel, he exer- 
cised that self-command which is founded on virtuous princi- 
ples, and strengthened by reflection and habit. 

In acquiring this entire dominion over his passions and ap- 
petites, Socrates had the greater merit, as it was not effected 
without a violent struggle against his natural propensities. 



SOCRATES. 

Zopyrus, an eminent physiognomist, declared that he discover- 
ed in the features of the philosopher evident traces of many 
vicious inclinations. The friends of Socrates, who were pres- 
ent, ridiculed the ignorance of this pretender to extraordinary 
sagacity. But Socrates himself ingenuously acknowledged his 
penetration, and confessed that he was, in his natural disposi- 
tion, prone to vice, but that he had subdued his inclination by 
the power of reason and philosophy. 

Through the whole course of his life, Socrates gave himself 
up to the direction of the divine power of reason. And this 
is, perhaps, all that we are to understand by the genius, or 
daemon, which is said to have, from time to time, given him in- 
struction ; though his disciples, who admitted the ancient doc- 
trine of the existence of daemons, or spirits of a middle order 
between God and man, probably from obscure or figurative ex- 
pressions which lie had made use of, imagined that there was, 
in this matter, something supernatural ; a notion which they 
would the more easily admit, and be the more ready to propa- 
gate, as they would naturally conceive it to reflect great hon- 
or upon the memory of their master. It is possible, indeed, 
that Socrates himself might, in some degree, be influenced by 
superstitious credulity concerning this daemon ; for it is ex- 
pressly attested by Xenophon that be believed that the Gods 
sometimes communicate to men the knowledge of future 
events, and that on this principle he encouraged the practice 
of divination. 

It was one of the maxims of Socrates, " that a wise man 
will worship the Gods according to the institutions of the state 
to which he belongs." He taught, however a doctrine con- 
cerning religion much more pure and rational than that 
which was delivered to the people by the priests, and he rep- 
robated the popular fables concerning the Gods. Convinced 
of the weakness of the human understanding, and perceiving 
that the pride of philosophy had led his predecessors into fu- 
tile speculations on the nature and origin of things, he judged 



324 SOCRATES. 

it most consistent with true wisdom to speak with caution 
and reverence concerning the divine nature. Nevertheless, 
there can be no doubt that, whilst he did not deny the ex- 
istence of inferior divinities, he acknowledged the being and 
providence of one Supreme Deity, and paid homage, with a 
pious mind, to the Sovereign Power. 

In fine, Socrates, both on account of his abilities as a moral 
preceptor, and on account of his personal merit, unquestion- 
ably deserves to be ranked in the first order of human beings. 
" The man," says Xenophon, " whose memoirs I have written, 
was so pious, that he undertook nothing without asking coun- 
sel of the Gods ; so just, that he never did the smallest inju- 
ry to any one, but rendered essential services to many ; so 
temperate, that he never preferred pleasure to virtue ; and so 
wise, that he was able, even in the most difficult cases, with- 
out advice, to judge what was expedient and right. He 
was eminently qualified to assist others by his counsel; to 
penetrate into men*s characters ; to reprehend them for their 
vices ; and to excite them to the practice of virtue. Having 
found all these excellences in Socrates, I have ever esteemed 
him the most virtuous, and the happiest of men." 

The wisdom and the virtues of this great man, whilst they 
procured him many followers, also created him many enemies. 
There were at this time in Athens a large body of professional 
preceptors of eloquence, distinguished by the appellation of 
Sophists. By the mere pomp of words, these men made a 
magnificent display of wisdom, upon a slight foundation of 
real knowledge; and they taught an artificial structure of 
language, and a false method of reasoning, by means of which 
they were able, in argument, to make the worse appear the bet- 
ter cause. At the same time that they arrogantly assumed to 
themselves the merit of every kind of learning, they publicly 
practiced the art of disputing with plausibility on either side 
of any question, and professed to teach this art to the Athen- 
ian youth. By these imposing nretensions they collected in 



S0CRATE9. 325 

their schools, a numerous train of young men, who followed 
them in hope of acquiring those talents which would give 
them weight and authority in popular assemblies. In such 
high repute were these Sophists, that they were liberally sup- 
ported, not only by contributions from their pupils, but by a 
regular salary from the State, and were in many instances 
distinguished by public honors, and employed in offices of 
magistracy. 

That such systematical provision should be made for cor- 
rupting the principles and taste of the Athenian youth, was 
much lamented by all honest men, and particularly by Soc- 
rates, whose good sense revolted against every idle abuse of 
language and pernicious perversion of reason, and whose pub- 
lic spirit would not suffer him to remain an inactive specta- 
tor of this growing evil. In order to dissipate the fascina- 
tion which these pretenders to wisdom had spread over the 
minds of youth, Socrates daily employed himself, after his pe- 
culiar manner, in perplexing them with questions, which were 
ingeniously contrived to expose their ignorance and convince 
the public of their dishonesty. The result was that the Soph- 
ists began to be deserted, and the Athenian youth to return 
to the love and pursuit of true wisdom. The contest, though 
salutary to Athens, proved, in the issue, fatal to Socrates. 

The Sophists, finding their reputation and emoluments daily 
declining, became inveterate in their enmity against this bold 
reformer, and eagerly seized every occasion of exposing him 
to public ridicule or censure. "Whilst Socrates was prose- 
cuting his design of instructing the Athenian youth with in- 
creasing reputation and success, his enemies devised an expe- 
dient, by means of which they hoped to check the current of 
his popularity. They engaged Aristophanes, the first buf- 
foon of the age, to write a comedy, in which Socrates should 
be the principal character. Aristophanes, pleased with so 
prominent an occasion of displaying his low and malignant 
wit, undertook the task, and produced the comedy of The 

28 



326 SOCRATES. 

Clouds, still extant in his works. In this piece Socrates is 
introduced hanging in a basket in the air, and thence pouring 
forth absurdity and profaneness. The philosopher, though 
he seldom visited the theatre, except when the tragedies of 
Euripides were performed, attended the representation of this 
play, at a time when the house was crowded with strangers, 
who happened to be at Athens, during the celebration of a 
Bacchanalian festival. When the performer who represented 
Socrates appeared upon the stage, a general whisper passed 
among the benches on which the strangers sat, to inquire who 
the person was whom the poet meant to satirize. Socrates, 
who had taken his station in one of the most public parts of 
the theatre, observed this circumstance, and immediately, 
with great coolness, rose up, to gratify the curiosity of the 
audience, and continued standing during the remainder of the 
representation. One of the spectators, astonished at the mag- 
nanimity which this action discovered, asked him whether 
he did not feel himself much chagrined to be thus held up to 
public derision ? " By no means," replied Socrates, u I am only 
a host at a public festival, where I provide a large company 
with entertainment." It is related that when Socrates heard 
Plato recite his Lysis, he said, " How much does this young 
man make me say which I never conceived. ' ■ 

The Athenians, who had always a strong propensity to jeal- 
ousy and detraction, foolishly suffered themselves to be 
amused by this infamous libel upon the first character in their 
city. But the seasonable confidence which Socrates discov- 
ered in his own innocence and merit, and the uniform con- 
sistency and dignity of his conduct, screened him for the pres- 
ent from the assaults of envy and malice. "When Aristoph- 
anes attempted, the year following, to renew the piece with 
alterations and additions, the representation was so much 
discouraged that he was obliged to discontinue it. The con- 
sequence was, that the Sophists, and other opponents of Soc- 
rates, who appear to have made use of the expedient of the- 



SOCRATES. 327 

atrical representation in order to sound the inclinations of 
the public, chose to postpone the further prosecution of their 
malignant intention to a more favorable opportunity. 

From this time Socrates continued, for many years, to pur- 
sue without interruption, his laudable design of instructing 
and reforming his fellow-citizens. At length, however, when 
the inflexible integrity with which he had discharged the 
duty of a senator, and the firmness with which he had op- 
posed every kind of political corruption and oppression, both 
under the democracy and the oligarchy, had greatly increased 
the number of his enemies, the conspiracy which had long 
been concerted against his life was resumed. After the dis- 
solution of the tyranny, clandestine arts were employed to 
raise a general prejudice against him. The people were in- 
dustriously reminded that Critias, who had been one of the 
most cruel of the Thirty Tyrants, and Alcibiades, who had 
insulted religion by defacing the public statues of Mercury, 
and performing a mock representation of the Eleusinian mys- 
teries, had in their youth been disciples of Socrates. 

The minds of the people being thus artfully prepared for 
the sequel, the enemies of Socrates preferred a direct accusa- 
tion against him before the supreme court of judicature. His 
accusers were Anytus, a leather-dresser, who had long enter- 
tained a personal enmity against Socrates, for reprehending his 
avarice, in depriving his sons of the benefit of learning, that 
they might pursue the gains of trade ; Melitus, a young rheto- 
rician, who was capable of undertaking anything for the sake 
of gain, and Lycon, who was glad of any opportunity of dis- 
playing his talents. 

This charge was delivered upon oath to the senate, and Crito, 
a friend of Socrates, became surety for his appearance on the 
day of trial. Anytus soon afterwards sent a private message 
to Socrates, assuring him, that if he would desist from censuring 
his conduct he would withdraw his accusation. But Socrates 
refused to comply with so degrading a condition, and with 



328 SOCRATES 

his usual spirit, replied, " Whilst I live I will never disguise 
the truth, nor speak otherwise than my duty requires." The 
interval between the accusation and the trial he spent in phi- 
losophical conversations with his friends, choosing to discourse 
upon any other subject rather than his own situation. Her- 
mogenes, one of his friends, was much struck with this cir- 
cumstance, and asked him why he did not employ his time 
in preparing his defence ? " Because," replied Socrates, " I 
have never in my life done anything unjust." The eminent 
orator Lysias composed an apology, in the name of his master, 
which he requested him to adopt ; but Socrates excused him- 
self by saying, " Though it is eloquently written, it will not 
suit my character." 

When the day of trial arrived, his accusers appeared in the 
senate, and attempted to support their charge in three dis- 
tinct speeches, which strongly marked their respective char- 
acters. Plato, who was a young man, and a zealous follower 
of Socrates, then rose up to address the judges in defence of 
his master ; but, whilst he was attempting to apologize for 
his youth, he was abruptly commanded by the court to sit 
down. Socrates, however, needed no advocate. Ascending 
the chair with all the serenity of conscious innocence, and with 
all the dignity of superior merit, he delivered, in a firm and 
manly tone, an unpremeditated defence of himself, which 
silenced his opponents, and ought to have convinced his 
judges. After tracing the progress of the conspiracy which 
had been raised against him to its true source, the jealousy 
and resentment of men whose ignorance he had exposed, and 
whose vices he had ridiculed and reproved, he distinctly re- 
plied to the several charges brought against him by Melitus. 
To prove that he had not been guilty of impiety towards the 
Gods of his country, he appealed to his frequent practice of 
attending the public religious festivals. The crime of intro- 
ducing new divinities, with which he was charged, chiefly, as 
it seems, on the ground of the admonitions which he professed 



SOCRATES. • 329 

to have received from an invisible power, he disclaimed, by 
pleading, that it was no new thing for men to consult the Gods, 
and receive instructions from them. To refute the charge of 
his having been a corrupter of youth, he urged the example 
which he had uniformly exhibited of justice, moderation, and 
temperance, the moral spirit and tendency of his discourses, 
and the effect which had actually been produced by his doc- 
trine upon the manners of the young. Then, disdaining to 
solicit the mercy of his judges, he called upon them for that 
justice, which their office and their oath obliged them to ad- 
minister, and professing his faith and confidence in God, re- 
signed himself to their pleasure. 

The judges, whose prejudices would not suffer them to pay 
due attention to this apology, or to examine with impartiality 
the merits of the cause, immediately declared him guilty of 
the crimes of which he stood accused. Socrates, in this stage 
of the trial, had a right to enter his plea against the punish- 
ment which the accusers demanded, and instead of the sentence 
of death, to propose some pecuniary amercement. But he at 
first peremptorily refused to make any proposal of this kind, 
imagining that it might be construed into an acknowledgment 
of guilt, and asserted that his conduct merited from the State 
reward rather than punishment. At length, however, he 
was prevailed upon by his friends to offer, upon their credit, a 
fine of thirty mince. The judges, notwithstanding, still re- 
mained inexorable : they proceeded without further delay, to 
pronounce sentence upon him ; and he was condemned to be 
put to death by the poison of hemlock. Socrates received the 
sentence with perfect composure, and by a smile testified his 
contempt both for his accusers and his judges. Then, turning 
to his friends, he expressed his entire satisfaction in the recol- 
lection of his past life, and declared himself firmly persuaded 
that posterity would do so much justice to his memory as to 
believe that he had never injured or corrupted any one, but 
had spent his days in serving his fellow -citizens, by communi- 
28* 



330 # SOCRATES. 

eating to them, without reward, the precepts of wisdom. 
Conversing in this manner, he was conducted from the court 
to the prison, which he entered with a serene countenance 
and a lofty mind, amidst the lamentations of his friends. 

On the day of the condemnation, it happened that the ship, 
which was employed to carry a customary annual offering to 
the island of Delos, set sail. It was contrary to the law of 
Athens, that during this voyage, any capital punishment should 
be inflicted within the city. This circumstance delayed the 
execution of the sentence against Socrates for thirty days. So 
long an interval of painful expectation, however, only served 
to afford further scope for the display of his constancy. When 
his friends were with him, he conversed with his usual cheer- 
fulness. In their absence, he amused himself with writing 
verses. He composed a hymn in honor of Apollo and Diana, 
and versified a fable of iEsop. His friends, still anxious to 
save so valuable a life, urged him to attempt his escape, or at 
least to permit them to convey him away ; and Crito went so 
far as to assure him that, by his interest with the jailer, it 
might be easily accomplished, and to offer him a retreat in 
Thessaly; but Socrates rejected the proposal, as a criminal 
violation of the laws ; and asked them, " Whether there was 
any place out of Attica which death could not reach." 

News being at length brought of the return of the ship from 
Delos, the officers to whose care he was committed delivered 
to Socrates, early in the morning, the final order for his execu- 
tion, and immediately, according to the law, set him at liberty 
from his bonds. His friends who came early to the prison, 
that they might have an opportunity of conversing with their 
master through the day, found his wife sitting by him with a 
child in her arms. As soon as Xanthippe saw them she burst 
into tears, and said, "0 Socrates, this is the last time your 
friends will ever speak to you, or you to them." Socrates, 
that the tranquilllity of his last moments might not be disturbed 
by her unavailing lamentations, requested that she might be 



SOCRATES. . 331 

conducted home. With the most frantic expressions of grief, 
she left the prison. An interesting conversation then passed 
between Socrates and his friends, which chiefly turned upon 
the immortality of the soul. In the course of this conversa- 
tion Socrates expressed his disapprobation of the practice of 
suicide, and assured his friends that his chief support in his 
present situation, was an expectation, though not unmixed 
with doubts, of a happy existence after death. " It would be 
inexcusable in me," said he, " to despise death, if I were not 
persuaded that it will conduct me into the presence of the 
Gods, who are the most righteous governors, and into the so- 
ciety of just and good men ; but I derive confidence from the 
hope that something of man remains after death, and that the 
condition of good men will then be much better than that of 
the bad." Orito afterwards asking him in what manner he 
wished to be buried, Socrates replied with a smile, " As you 
please, provided I do not escape out of your hands." Then, 
turning to the rest of his friends, he said, " Is it not strange, 
after all that I have said to convince you that I am going to 
the society of the happ} r , that Crito still thinks this body, 
which will soon be a lifeless corpse, to be Socrates ? Let him 
dispose of my body as he pleases, but let him not, at its inter- 
ment, mourn over it as if it were Socrates." 

Towards the close of the day Socrates retired into an ad- 
joining apartment to bathe, his friends, in the meantime, ex- 
pressing to one another their grief at the prospect of losing so 
excellent a father, and being left to pass the rest of their days 
in the solitary state of orphans. After a short interval, dur- 
ing which he gave some necessary instructions to his domes- 
tics, and took his last leave of his children, the attendant of 
the prison informed him that the time for drinking the poison 
was come. The executioner, though accustomed to such 
scenes, shed tears as he presented the fatal cup. Socrates re- 
ceived it without change of countenance, or the least appear- 
ance of perturbation ; then, offering up a prayer to the Gods, 



332 . SOCRATES. 

that they would grant him a prosperous passage into the in- 
visible world, with perfect composure he swallowed the poison- 
ous draught. His friends around him burst into tears. Socrates 
alone remained unmoved. He upbraided their pusillanimity, 
and entreated them to exercise a manly constancy, worthy of 
the friends of virtue. He continued walking till the chilling 
operation of the hemlock obliged him to lie down upon his 
bed. After remaining for a short time silent, he requested 
Crito (probably in order to refute a calumny which might 
prove injurious to his friends after his decease) not to neglect 
the offering of a cock which he had vowed to Esculapius. 
Then covering himself with his cloak, he expired. Such was 
the fate of the virtuous Socrates ! " A story," says Cicero, 
" which I never read without tears." 

The friends and disciples of this illustrious teacher of wis- 
dom were deeply affected by his death, and attended his funer- 
al with every expression of grief. Apprehensive, however, 
for their own safety, they soon afterwards privately withdrew 
from the city, and took up their residences in distant places. 
Several of them visited the philosopher Euclid, of Megara, by 
whom they were kindly received. 

No sooner was the unjust condemnation of Socrates known 
through Greece than a general indignation was kindled in the 
minds of good men, who universally regretted that so distin- 
guished an advocate for virtue should have fallen a sacrifice to 
jealousy and envy. The Athenians themselves, so remarkable 
for their caprice, who never knew the value of their great 
men till after their death, soon became sensible of the folly, as 
well as criminality, of putting to death the man who had 
been the chief ornament of their city, and of the age, and 
turned their indignation against his accusers. Melitus was con- 
demned to death, and Anytus, to escape a similar fate, went 
into voluntary exile. To give a further proof of the sincerity 
of their regret, the Athenians, for awhile, interrupted public 
business; decreed a general mourning; recalled the exiled 



solon. 333 

friends of Socrates ; and erected a statue to his memory in one 
of the most frequented parts of the city. His death happened 
in the first year of the ninety-sixth Olympiad, and in the 
seventieth year of his age. 



SOLON. 

This eminent philosopher flourished about the year 597 
before Christ. Plutarch gives the following account of him : 
His father having injured his fortune by indulging his great 
and munificent spirit, though the son might have been sup- 
ported by his friends, yet as he was of a family that had long 
been assisting others, he was ashamed to accept of assist- 
ance himself; and, therefore, in his younger years, applied 
himself to merchandise. Some, however, say that he trav- 
elled rather to gratify his curiosity, and extend his knowledge, 
than to raise an estate. For he professed his love of wisdom, 
and when far advanced in years, made this declaration, — " I 
grow old in the pursuit of learning." He was not too much 
attached to wealth, as we may gather from the following 
verses : — 

The man that boasts of golden stores, 
Of grain that loads his bending floors, 
Of fields with fresh'ning herbage green, 
Where bounding steeds and herds are seen, 
I call not happier than the swain, 
Whose limbs are sound, whose food is plain, 
Whose joys a blooming wife endears, 
Whose hours a smiling offspring cheers. 

Yet, in another place, he says — 

The flow of riches, though desir'd, 
Life's real goods, if well acquir'd, 
Unjustly let me never gain, 
Lesl vengeance follow in their train. 



334 solon. 

If Solon was too expensive and luxurious in his way of liv- 
ing, and indulged his poetical vein in his description of pleas- 
ure too freely for a philosopher, it is imputed to his mercan- 
tile life ; for, as he passed through many and great dangers, 
he might surely compensate them with a little relaxation and 
enjoyment. But that he placed himself rather in the class of 
the poor than the rich, is evident from these lines : — 

For vice, though Plenty fills her horn, 
And virtue sinks in want and scorn ; 
Yet never, sure, shall Solon change 
His truth for wealth's most easy range ! 
Since virtue lives, and truth shall stand 
While wealth eludes the grasping hand. 

He seems to have made use of his poetical talent at first, not 
for any serious purpose, but only for amusement, and to fill 
up his hours of leisure ; but afterwards he inserted moral sen- 
tences, and interwove many political transactions in his poems, 
not for the sake of recording or remembering them, but some- 
times by way of apology for his own administration, and 
sometimes to exhort, to advise, or to censure the citizens of 
Athens. Some are of opinion, that he attempted to put his 
laws, too, in verse ; and they give us this beginning : — 

Supreme of Gods, whose power we first address. 
This plan to honor and these laws to bless. 

Like most of the sages of those times, he cultivated chiefly 
that part of moral philosophy, which treats of civil obliga- 
tions. His physics were of a very simple and ancient cast, as 
appears from the following lines : — 

From cloudy vapors falls the treasur'd snow, 
And the fierce hail ; from lightning's rapid blaze 
Springs the loud thunder — winds disturb the deep, 
Than whose unruffled breast no smoother scene 
In all the works of nature ! — 

We have a particular account of a conversation which So- 
lon had with Anacharsis, and of another he had with Thales. 



solon. 335 

Anacharsis went to Solon's house at Athens, knocked at the 
door, and said, — " He was a stranger, who desired to enter 
into engagements of friendship and mutual hospitality with 
him."' Solon answered, — " Friendships are best formed at 
home." k * Then do you,*' said Anacharsis, M who are at home, 
make me your friend and receive me into your house." 
Struck with the quickness of his repartee, Solon gave him a 
kind welcome, and kept him some time with him, being then 
employed in public affairs and in modelling his laws. When 
Anacharsis knew what Solon was about, he laughed at his un- 
dertaking, and at the absurdity of imagining he could restrain 
the avarice and injustice of the citizens by written laws', which 
in all respects resembled spider's webs, and would, like them, 
only entangle, and hold the poor and weak, while the rich 
and powerful easily broke through them. To this Solon re- 
plied, " Men keep their agreements, when it is an advantage 
to both parties not to break them ; and he would so frame 
his laws, as to make it evident to the Athenians, that it would- 
be more for their interest to observe them than to transgress 
them." The event, however, showed that Anacharsis was 
nearer the truth in his conjecture, than Solon was in his hope. 
Anacharsis having seen an assembly of the people at Athens, 
said — M He was surprised at this, that in Greece wise men 
pleaded causes, and fools determined them." 

When Solon was entertained by Thales at Miletus, he ex- 
pressed some wonder that " he did not marry and raise a 
family." To this Thales gave no immediate answer ; but 
some days after he instructed a stranger to say,— "That he 
came from Athens ten days before." Solon inquiring, " What 
news there was at Athens ?" the man, according to his in- 
structions, said, — " None, except the funeral of a young man, 
which was attended by the whole city ; for he was the son 
(as they told me) of a person of great honor, and of the high- 
est reputation for virtue, who was then abroad upon his 
travels." " What a miserable man is he," said Solon ; " but 



336 solon. 

what was his name?" "I have heard his name," answered 
the stranger, " but do not recollect it ; all I remember is, that 
there was much talk of his wisdom and justice." Solon, 
whose apprehensions increased with every reply, was now 
much disconcerted, and mentioned his own name, asking, — 
" Whether it was not Solon's son that was dead ?" The 
stranger answering in the affirmative, he began to beat his 
head, and to do and say such things as are usual to men in a 
transport of grief * Then Thales, taking him by the hand, 
said, with a smile, — " These things which strike down so firm 
a man as Solon, kept me from marriage and from having chil- 
dren ; but take courage, my good friend, for not a word of 
what has been told you is true." Hermippus says, he took 
this story from Pataacus, who used to boast that he had the 
soul of iEsop. 

"When the Athenians, tired out with a long and troublesome 
war against the Megarensians for the isle of Salamis, made a 
law that no one for the future, under the pain of death, 
should either by speech or writing propose that the city should 
assert its claim to that island, Solon was very uneasy at so 
dishonorable a decree, and seeing great part of the youth de- 
sirous to begin the war again, being restrained from it only by 
fear of the law, he feigned himself insane ;t and a report 
spread from his house into the city, that he was out of his 
senses. Privately, however, he had composed an elegy, and 
got it by heart, in order to repeat it in public ; thus prepared, 
he sallied out unexpectedly into the market-place with a cap 

* Whether on this occasion, or on the real loss of a son, is uncertain, Solon, 
being desired not to weep, since weeping would avail nothing ; he answered 
with much humanity and good sense, — ;t And for this cause I weep." 

t When the Athenians were delivered from their fears by the death of Epam- 
inondas, they began to squander away upon shows and plays the money that 
had been assigned for the pay of the army and navy, and at the same time they 
made it death for any one to propose a reformation. In that case, Demosthenes 
did not, like Solon, attack their error under a pretence of insanity, but boldly 
and resolutely spoke against it, and by the force of his eloquence brought them 
to correct it. 



SOLON. 33? 

upon bis bead.* A great number of people flocking about 
him tbere, he got upon the herald's stone, and sung the elegy 
which begins thus : — 

Hear and attend ; from Salamis I came 
To show your error. 

This composition is entitled Salamis, and consists of a hundred 
very beautiful lines. When Solon had done, his friends began 
to express their admiration, and Pisistratus in particular ex- 
erted himself in persuading the people to comply with bis 
directions ; whereupon they repealed the law, once more un- 
dertook the war, and invested Solon with the command. The 
common account of his proceedings is this : — He sailed with 
Pisistratus to Oolias, and having seized the women, who, ac- 
cording to the custom of the country, were offering sacrifice 
to Ceres there, he sent a trusty person to Salamis, who was to 
pretend he was a deserter, and to advise the Megarensians, if 
they had a mind to seize the principal Athenian matrons, to 
set sail immediately for Colias. The Megarensians readily em- 
bracing the proposal, and sending out a body of men, Solon 
discovered the ship as it put off from the island ; and causing 
the women directly to withdraw, ordered a number of young 
men whose faces were yet smooth, to dress themselves in their 
habits, caps, and shoes. Thus, with weapons concealed under 
their clothes, they were to dance and play by the sea-side till 
the enemy was landed, and the vessel near enough to be 
seized. Matters being thus ordered, the Megarensians were 
deceived with the appearance, and ran confusedly on shore, 
striving which should first lay hold on the women. But they 
met with so warm a reception that they were cut off to a 
man • and the Athenians embarking immediately for Salamis, 
took possession of the island. 

Others deny that it was recovered in this manner, and tell 

* None wore caps but the sick. 

29 



338 solon. 

us, that Apollo, being first consulted at Delphi, gave this an- 
swer : — 

Go, first propitiate the country's chiefs 
Hid in iEsopus' lap ; who, when interr'd, 
Fac'd the declining sun. 

Upon this Solon crossed the sea by night, and offered sacri- 
fices in Salamis to the heroes Periphemus and Cichreus. Then 
taking five hundred Athenian volunteers, who had obtained 
a decree, that if they conquered the island, the government 
of it should be invested in them, he sailed with a number of 
fishing-vessels and one galley of thirty oars for Salamis, where 
he cast anchor at a point which looks towards Eubcea. 

The Megarensians that were in the place, having heard a 
confused report of what had happened, betook themselves in 
a disorderly manner to arms, and sent a ship to discover the 
enemy. As the ship approached too near, Solon took it, and 
securing the crew, put in their place some of the bravest of 
the Athenians, with orders to make the best of their way to 
the city as privately as possible. In the meantime, with the 
rest of his men, he attacked the Megarensians by land, and 
while these were engaged, those from the ship took the city. 
A custom which obtained afterwards seems to bear witness to 
the truth of this account ; for an Athenian ship, once a-year, 
passed silently to Salamis, and the inhabitants coming down 
upon it with noise and tumult, one man in armor leaped ashore, 
and ran shouting towards the the promontory of Sciradium, 
to meet those who were advancing by land. Near that place 
is a temple of Mars erected by Solon ; for there it was that he 
defeated the Megarensians, and dismissed, upon certain con- 
ditions, such as were not slain in battle. 

However, the people of Megara persisted in their claim, till 
both sides had severely felt the calamities of war ; and then 
they referred the affair to the decision of the Lacedaemonians. 
Many authors relate that Solon availed himself of a passage in 
Homer's catalogue of ships, which he alleged before the arbi- 



S O L X . 

trators, dexterously inserting a line of his own ; for to this 
verse, 

Ajax from Salamis twelve ships commands, 

he is said to have added, 

And ranks his forces with th' Athenian power. 

But the Athenians look upon this as an idle story, and tell us, 
that Solon made it appear to the judges, that Phikeus and 
Eurysaces, sons of Ajax, being admitted by the Athenians to 
the freedom of their city, gave up the island to them, and re- 
moved, the one to Brauron, and the other to Melite in Attica ; 
likewise, that the tribe of the Philaidge, of which Pisistratus 
was, had its name from that Philseus. He brought another 
argument against the Megarensians from the manner of bury- 
ing in Salamis, which was agreeable to the custom of Athens, 
and not to that of Megara ; for the Megarensians inter the 
dead with their faces to the east, and the Athenians turn theirs 
to the west. On the other hand, Hereas of Megara insists 
that the Megarensians likewise turn the faces of the dead to 
the west ; and what is more, that, like the people of Salamis, 
they put three or four corpses in one tomb, whereas the Athen- 
ians have a separate tomb for each. But Solon's cause was 
further assisted by certain oracles of Apollo, in which the 
island was called Ionian Salamis. This matter was determin- 
ed by five Spartans, Critola'ides, Amompharetus, Hypsechidas, 
Anaxilas, and Cleomenes. 

Solon acquired considerable honor and authority in Athens 
by this affair : but he was much more celebrated among the 
Greeks in general for negotiating succors for the temple at 
Delphi, against the insolent and injurious behavior of the 
Cirrhaeansj* and persuading the Greeks to arm for the honor 

* The inhabitants of Cirrha, a town seated in the bay of Corinth, after having 
by repeated incursions wasted the territory of Delphi, besieged the city itself, 
from a desire of making themselves masters of the riches contained in the temple 
of Apollo. Advice of this being sent to the Jmphictyons, who were the states- 
general of Greece, Solon advised that this matter should be universally resented. 



340 SOLON. 

of the God. At his motion it was that the Amphictyons de- 
clared war, as Aristotle, among others, testifies, in his book 
concerning the Pythian games, where he attributes that de- 
cree to Solon. 

The execrable proceeding against the accomplices of Cylon, 
had long occasioned great troubles in the Athenian state. The 
conspirators had taken sanctuary in Minerva's temple ; but ^le- 
gacies, then archon, persuaded them to quit it, and stand trial, 
under the notion that if they tied a thread to the shrine of the 
goddess, and kept hold of it, they would still be under her 
protection. But when they came over against the temple of 
the Furies, the thread broke of itself; upon which Megacles 
and his colleagues rushed upon them, and seized them, as if 
they had lost their privilege. Such as were out of the temple 
were stoned ; those that fled to the altars were cut in pieces 
there ; and they only were spared who made application to 
the wives of the magistrates. From that time those magis- 
trates were called execrable, and became objects of the pub- 
lic hatred. The remains of Oylon's faction afterwards recov- 
ered strength, and kept up the quarrel with the descendants of 
Megacles. The dispute was greater than ever, and the two 
parties more exasperated, when Solon, whose authority was 
now very great, and others of the principal Athenians, inter- 
posed, and by entreaties and arguments persuaded the persons 
called execrable to submit to justice and a fair trial, before three 

Accordingly, Clisthenes, tyrant of Sicyon, was sent commander-in-chief against 
the Cirrhaeans ; Alcmaeon was general of the Athenian quota ; and Solon went 
as counsellor or assistant to Clisthenes. When the Greek army had besieged 
Cirrha some time, without any great appearance of success, Apollo was con- 
sulted, who answered, that they should not be able to reduce the place till the 
waves of the Cirrhaean sea washed the territories of Delphi. This answer struck 
the army with surprise ; from which Solon extricated them, by advising Clis- 
thenes to consecrate the whole territories of Cirrha to the Delphic Apollo, 
whence it would follow that the sea must wash the sacred coast. Pausanias 
(in Phocicis) mentions another stratagem, which was not worthy of the justice 
of Solon. Cirrha, however, was taken, and became henceforth the arsenal of 
of Delphi. 



SOLON. 341 

hundred judges selected from the nobility. Myron, of the 
Phylensian ward, carried on the impeachment, and they were 
condemned. As many as were alive, were driven into exile ; 
and the bodies of the dead dug up and cast out beyond 
the borders of Attica. Amidst these disturbances, the Mega- 
rensians renewed the war, took Nisaa from the Athenians, and 
recovered Salamis once more. 

About this time the city was likewise afflicted with super- 
stitious fears and strange appearances ; and the soothsayers de- 
clared, that there were certain abominable crimes, which 
wanted expiation, pointed out by the entrails of the victims. 
Upon this they sent to Crete for Epimenides the Phmtian* 
who is reckoned the seventh among the wise men, by those 
that do not admit Periander into the number. He was reputed 
a man of great piety, and loved by the Gods, and skilled in mat- 
ters of religion, particularly in what related to inspiration and 
the sacred mysteries ; therefore the men of those days called 
him the son of nymph Balte, and one of the Cureies revived. 
When he arrived at Athens, he contracted a friendship with 
Solon, and privately gave him considerable assistance, prepar- 
ing the way for the reception of his laws. For he taught the 
Athenians to be more frugal in their religious worship, and 
more moderate in their mourning, by intermixing certain sac- 
rifices with the funeral solemnities, and abolishing the cruel 
and barbarous customs that had generally prevailed among 

* This Epimenides was a very extraordinary person. Diogenes Laertius tells 
us, that he was the inventor of the art of lustrating or purifying houses, fields, 
and persons ; which, if spoken of Greece, may be true ; but Moses had long be- 
fore tanght the Hebrews something of this nature. — {Vide Levit. xvi.) Epi- 
menides took some sheep that were all black, and others that were all white ; 
these he led into the Areopagus, and turning them loose, directed certain persons 
to follow them, who should mark where they couched, and there sacrifice them 
to the local diety. This being done, altars were erected in all these places to 
perpetuate the memory of this solemn expiation. There were, however, other 
ceremonies practiced for the purpose of lustration, of which Tizetzes, in his poet- 
ical chronicle, gives a particular account, but which are too trifling to be men- 
tioned here. 

29* 



342 solon. 

the women before. What is of still greater consequence, by 
expiations, lustrations, and the erecting of temples and shrines, 
he hallowed and purified the city, and made the people more 
observant of justice, and more inclined to union. 

When he had seen Munychia, and considered it some time, 
he is reported to have said to those about him,* " How blind 
is man to futurity ! If the Athenians could foresee what 
trouble that place will give them, they would tear it in pieces 
with their teeth rather than it should stand." Something 
similar to this is related of Thales ; for he ordered the Mile- 
sians to bury him iD a certain recluse and neglected place, and 
foretold, at the same time, that their market-place would one 
day stand there. As for Epimenides, he was held in admira- 
tion at Athens ; great honors were paid him, and many val- 
uable presents made; yet he would accept of nothing but 
a branch of the sacred olive, which they gave him at his re- 
quest ; and with that he departed. 

When the troubles about Oylon's affairs were over, and the 
sacrilegious persons removed in the manner we have mention- 
ed, the Athenians relapsed into their old disputes concerning 
the government ; for there were as many parties among them 
as there were different tracts of land in their country. The 
inhabitants of the mountainous part were, it seems, for a de- 
mocracy; those of the plains for an oligarchy; and those of 
the sea-coasts, contending for a mixed kind of government, 
hindered the other two from gaining their point. At the 
same time, the inequality between the poor and the rich oc- 
casioned the greatest discord ; and the State was in so danger- 

* This prediction was fulfilled 270 years after, when Antipater constrained 
the Athenians to admit his garrison into that place. Besides this prophecy, 
Epimenides uttered another during his stay at Athens ; for hearing that the 
citizens were alarmed at the progress of the Persian power at sea, he advised 
them to make themselves easy, for that the Persians would not for many years 
attempt anything against the Greeks, and when they did, they would receive 
greater loss themselves than they would he able to bring upon the States they 
thought to destroy.— Laert. in Vitd et Rimen. 



solon. 343 

ous a situation, that there seemed to be no way to quell the 
seditious, or to save it from ruin, but changing it to a monarchy. 
So greatly were the poor in debt to the rich, that they were 
obliged either to pay them a sixth part of the produce of 
the land (whence they were called Hectemorii and Thetes), or 
else to engage their persons to their creditors, who might 
seize them on failure of payment. Accordingly, some made 
slaves of them, and others sold them to foreigners, xsay, some 
parents were forced to sell their own children (for no law for- 
bade it), and to quit the city, to avoid the severe treatment of 
those usurers. But the greater number, and men of the most 
spirit, agreed to stand by each other, and to bear such imposi- 
tions no longer. They determined to choose a trusty person for 
their leader, to deliver those who had failed in their time of 
payment, to divide the laud, and to give an entire new face 
to the commonwealth. 

Then the most prudent of the Athenians cast their eyes up- 
on Solon, as a man least obnoxious to either party, having 
neither been engaged in oppressions Avith the rich, nor en- 
tangled in necessities with the poor. Him, therefore, they 
entreated to assist the public in this exigency, and to com- 
pose these differences. Phanias, the Lesbian, asserts, indeed, 
that Solon, to save the State, dealt artfully with both par- 
ties, and privately promised the poor a division of the lands, 
and the rich a confirmation of their securities. At first he 
was loth to take the administration upon him, by reason of 
the avarice of some, and the insolence of others; but was, 
however, chosen archon next after Philombrotus, and at the 
same time arbitrator and lawgiver ; the rich accepting of him 
readily as one of them, and the poor as a good and worthy 
man. They tell us, too, that a saying of his, which he had 
let fall some time before, that — " equality causes no war," was 
then much repeated, and pleased both the rich and the poor ; 
the latter expecting to come to a balance by their numbers 
and by the measure of divided lands, and the former to pre- 



344 solon. 

serve an equality at least by their dignity and power. Thus 
both parties being in great hopes, the heads of them were ur- 
gent with Solon to make himself king, and endeavored to 
persuade him that he might with better assurance take upon 
him the direction of a city where he had the supreme author- 
ity. Kay, many of the citizens that leaned to neither party, 
seeing the intended change difficult to be effected by reason 
and law, were not against the entrusting of the government 
to the hands of one wise and just man. Some, moreover, 
acquaint lis, that he received this oracle from Apollo : — 

Seize, seize the helm, the reeling vessel guide, 
With aiding patriots stem the raging tide. 

His friends, in particular, told him it would appear that he 
wanted courage, if he rejected the monarchy for fear of the 
name of tyrant, as if the sole and supreme power would not 
soon become a lawful sovereignty through the virtues of him 
that received it. Thus formerly (said they) the Eubceans set 
up Tynnondas, and lately the Mitylenseans Pittacus for their 
prince. None of these things moved Solon from his pur- 
pose ; and the answer he is said to have given to his friends 
is this : — " Absolute monarchy is a fair field, but it has no 
outlet.' 1 And in one of his poems he thus addresses himself 
to his friend Phocus : — 

If I spar'd my country, 

If gilded violence and tyrannic sway 

Could never charm me, thence no shame accrues ; 

Still the mild honor of my name I boast, 

And find my empire there. 

Whence it is evident that his reputation was very great be- 
fore he appeared in the character of a legislator. As for the 
ridicule he was exposed to for rejecting kingly power, he has 
described it in the following verses : — 

Nor wisdom's palm, nor deep laid policy 
Can Solon boast ; for when its noblest blessings 
Heaven pour'd into his lap, he spurn'd them from him. 
Where was his sense and spirit, when enclos'd 



solon. 345 

He found the choicest prey, nor deign'd to draw it? 
Who, to command fair Athens but one day, 
Would not himself, with ail his race, have fallen 
Contented on the morrow ? 

Thus he has introduced the multitude and men of low minds 
as discoursing about him. But though he rejected absolute 
power, he proceeded with spirit enough in the administration. 
He did not make any concessions in behalf of the powerful, 
nor, in the framing of his laws, did he indulge the humor of 
his constituents. Where the former establishment was toler- 
able, he neither applied remedies, nor used the incision knife, 
lest he should put the whole in disorder, and not have power 
to settle or compose it afterwards in the temperature he could 
wish. He only made such alterations as he might bring the 
people to acquiesce in by persuasion, or compel them to by 
his authority, making (as he says) — " force and right con- 
spire." Hence it was, that having the question afterwards 
put to him, — " Whether he had provided the best of laws for 
the Athenians ?" he answered, — " The best they were capable 
of receiving." And as the moderns observe, that the Athen- 
ians used to qualify the harshness of things by giving them 
softer and politer names, calling whores mistresses, tributes con- 
tributions, garrisons guards, and prisons castles; so Solon 
seems to be the first that distinguished the cancelling of debts 
by the name of a discharge. For this was the first of his 
public acts, that debts should be forgiven, and that no man 
for the future should take the body of his debtor for security. 
Though Androtion and some others say, that it was not by the 
cancelling of debts, but by moderating the interest, that the 
poor were relieved, they thought themselves so happy in it, 
that they gave the name of discharge to this act of humanity, 
as well as to the enlarging of measures and the value of 
money, which went along with it. For he ordered the mince, 
which before went but for seventy-three drachmas, to go for 
a hundred ; so that, as they paid the same in value, but much 



346 solon. 

less in weight, those that had great sums to pay were relieved, 
while such as received them were no losers. 

The greater part of writers, however, affirm, that it was 
the abolition of past securities that was called a discharge ; 
and with these the poems of Solon agree ; for in them he val- 
ues himself on — " having taken away the marks of mort- 
gaged land,* which before were almost everywhere set up, 
and made free those fields which before were bound!" and 
not only so, but — " of such citizens as were seizable by their 
creditors for debt, some," he tells us, " he had brought back 
from other countries where they had wandered so long, that 
they had forgot the Attic dialect, and others he had set at 
liberty who had experienced a cruel slavery at home." 

This affair, indeed, brought upon him the greatest trouble 
he met with ; for when he undertook the annulling of debts, 
and was considering of a suitable speech, and a proper method 
of introducing the business, he told some of his most intimate 
friends, namely Oonon, Olinias, and Hipponicus, that he in- 
tended only to abolish the debts, and not to meddle with the 
lands. These friends of his hastening to make their advan- 
tage of the secret before the decree took place, borrowed 
large sums of the rich, and purchased estates with them. Af- 
terwards, when the decree was published, they kept their 
possessions, without paying the money they had taken up ; 
which brought great reflections upon Solon, as if he had not 
been imposed upon with the rest, but rather an accomplice in 
the fraud. This charge, however, was soon removed, by his 
being the first to comply with the law, and remitting a debt 
of five talents, which he had out at interest. Others, among 
whom is Polyzelus the Ehodian, say it was fifteen talents. 
But his friends went by the name of Chreocopidce, or debt- 
cutters, ever after. 

The method he took satisfied neither the poor nor the rich. 

* The Athenians had a custom of fixing up billets, to show that houses or 
lands were mortgaged. 



solon. 347 

The latter were displeased by the cancelling of their bonds, 
and the former at not finding a division of lands. Upon this 
they had fixed their hopes ; and they complained that he had 
not, like Lycurgus, made all the citizens equal in estate. Ly- 
curgus, however, being the eleventh from Hercules, and hav- 
ing reigned many years in Lacedsemon, had acquired great 
authority, interest, and friends, of which he knew very well 
how to avail himself in setting up a new form of government ; 
yet he was obliged to have recourse to force rather than per- 
suasion, and had an eye struck out in the dispute, before he 
could bring it to a lasting settlement, and establish such an 
union and equality as left neither rich nor poor in the city. 
On the other hand, Solon's estate was but moderate, not su- 
perior to that of some commoners, and, therefore, he attempt- 
ed not to erect such a commonwealth as that of Lycurgus, 
considering it as out of his power ; he proceeded as far as he 
thought he could be supported by the confidence the people 
had in his probity and wisdom. 

That he answered not the expectations of the generality, 
but offended them by falling short, appears from these verses 
of his : — 

Those eyes, -with joy once sparkling when they view'd me, 
With cold oblique regard behold me now. 

And a little after, — 

Yet who but Solon 

Could have spoke peace to their tumultuous waves, 
And not have sunk beneath them ? 

But being soon sensible of the utility of the decree, they laid 
aside their complaints, offered a public sacrifice, which they 
called seisacthia, or the sacrifice of the discharge, and consti- 
tuted Solon lawgiver and superintendent of the common- 
wealth ; committing to him the regulation not of a part only, 
but the whole — magistracies, assemblies, courts of judicature, 
and senate ; and leaving him to determine the qualification, 



348 solon. 

number, and time of meeting for them all, as well as to abro- 
gate or continue the former constitution at his pleasure. 

First, then, he repealed the laws of Draco, except those 
concerning murder, because of the severity of the punishments 
they appointed : which for almost all offences were capital ; 
even those that were convicted of idleness were to suffer death, 
and such as stole only a few apples or pot-herbs, were to be 
punished in the same manner as sacrilegious persons and mur- 
derers. I^ence a saying of Demades, who lived long after, 
was much admired, — " That Draco wrote his laws not with 
ink, but with blood." And he himself being asked, " "Why 
he made death the punishment for most offences ?" answered, 
" Small ones deserve it, and I can find no greater for the most 
heinous." 

In the next place, Solon took an estimate of the estates of 
the citizens; intending to leave the great offices in the hands 
of the rich, but to give the rest of the people a share in other 
departments which they had not before. Such as had a yearly 
income of five hundred measures of wet and dry goods, he 
placed in the first rank, and called them Pentacosiome&imniy 
The second consisted of those that could keep a horse, or 
whose lands produced three hundred measures ; these were of 
the equestrian order, and called Hippoda telountes. And those 
of the third class, who had but two hundred measures, were call- 
ed Zeugitce. The rest were named Thetes, and not admitted to 
any office; they had only a right to appear and give their 
vote in the general assembly of the people. This seemed at 
first but a slight privilege, but afterwards showed itself a mat- 

* The Pentacosiomedimni paid a talent to the public treasury ; the Hippoda 
telountes, as the word signifies, were obliged to find a horse, and to serve as 
cavalry in the wars; the Zeugitce, were so called, as being of a middle rank be- 
tween the knights and those of the lowest order (for rowers who have the middle 
bench between the Thalamites and the Thranites, are called Zetlgitce) ; and 
though the Thetes had barely each a vote in the general assemblies, yet that 
(as Plutarch observes) appeared in time to be a great privilege, most causes being 
brought by appeal before the people. 



solox. 349 

terof great importance ; for most causes came at last to be de- 
cided by them ; and in such matters as were under the cogni- 
zance of the magistrates, there lay an appeal to the people. 
Besides, he is said to have drawn up his laws in an obscure and 
ambigious manner, on purpose to enlarge the authority of the 
popular tribunal ; for as they could not adjust their difference 
\)j the letter of the law, they were obliged to have recourse to 
living judges; I mean the whole body of citizens, who, there- 
fore, had all controversies brought before them, and were in a 
manner superior to the laws. Of this equality, he himself 
takes notice in these words : — 

By me the people held their native rights 
Uninjur'd unoppress'd— The great restrain'd 
From lawless violence, and the poor from rapine, 
By me, their mutual shield. 

Desirous yet further to strengthen the common people, he em- 
powered any man whatever to enter an action for one that 
was injured. If a person was assaulted, or suffered damage or 
violence, another that was able and willing to do it might pros- 
ecute the offender. Thns the lawgiver wisely accustomed the 
citizens, as members of one body, to feel and to resent one 
another's injuries. And we are told of a saying of his agree- 
able to this law ; being asked, — " What city was best model- 
led ?" he answered ; — " That, wfcere those who are not injured, 
are no less ready to prosecute and punish offenders, than those 
who are." 

"When these points were adjusted, he established the council 
of the areopagus* which was to consist of such as had borne 

* The court of areopagus, though settled long before, had lost much of its 
power by Draco's preferring the ephetae. In ancient times, and till Solon be- 
came legislator, it consisted of such persons as were most conspicuous in the 
state for their wealth, power, and probity : but Solon made it a rule, that such 
only should have a seat in it as had borne the office of archon. This had the effect 
he designed ; it raised the reputation of the areopagites very high, and rendered 
their decrees so venerable, that none contested or repined at them through a 
loug course of ages. 

30 



350 SOLON. 

the office of archo/i* and himself was one of the number. 
But observing that the people, now discharged from their 
debts, grew insolent and imperious, he proceeded to constitute 
another council or senate, of four hundred, a hundred out of 
each tribe, by whom all affairs were to be previously consider- 
ed; and ordered that no matter, without their approbation, 
should be laid before the general assembly. In the meantime, 
the high court of the areopagus were to be the inspectors and 
guardians of the laws. Thus he supposed the commonwealth, 
secured by two councils, as by two anchors, would be less lia- 
ble to be shaken by tumults, and the people would become 
more orderly and peaceable. Most writers, as we have ob- 
served, affirm, that the council of the areopagus was of Solon's 
appointing ; and it seems greatly to confirm their assertion, 
that Draco has made no mention of the areopagites, but in 
capital causes constantly addressed himself to the epheta ; yet 
the eighth law of Solon's thirteenth table is set down in these 
very words : — " Whoever were declared infamous before So- 
lon's archonship, let them be restored in honor, except such as 
having been condemned in the areopagus, or by the ephetae, 
or by the kings in the Prytaneum, for murder or rubbery, or 
attempting to usurp the government, had fled their country 
before this law was made." This on the contrary shows, that 
before Solon was chief magistrate, and delivered his laws, the 
council of the areopagus was in being ; for who could have 
been condemned in the areopagus before Solon's time, if he 
was the first that erected it into a court of judicature ? Un- 
less, perhaps, there be some obscurity or deficiency in the 

* After the extinction of the race of the Medontidae, the Athenians made the 
office of archon annual ; and instead of one, they created nine archons. By 
the latter expedient, they provided against the too great power of a single per- 
son, as by the former they took away all apprehension of the archons setting 
up for sovereigns. In one word, they attained now what they had long sought 
—the making their supreme magistrate dependent on the people. This remark- 
able era of the completion of the Athenian democracy was, according to the 
Marmora, in the first year of the xvivth Olympiad, before Christ 684. 



SOLON. 351 

text, and the meaning be, that such as have been convicted of 
crimes that are now cognizable before the areopagus, the ephetm* 
and prytanes, shall continue infamous, while others are restor- 
ed. But this I submit to the judgment of the reader. 

The most peculiar and surprising of his other laws, is that 
which declares the man infamous who stands neuter in time 
of sedition.! It seems lie would not have us be indifferent 
and unaffected with the fate of the public, when our own con- 
cerns are upon a safe bottom ; nor when we are in health, be 
insensible to the distempers and griefs of our country. He 
would have us espouse the better and juster cause, and hazard 
everything in defence of it, rather than wait in safety to see 
which side the victory will incline to. That law, too, seems 
quite ridiculous and absurd, which permits a rich heiress, 
whose husband happens to be impotent, to console herself 
with his nearest relations. Yet some say, this law was very 
properly levelled against those who, conscious of their own 
inability, match with heiresses for the sake of the portion, and, 
under color of law, do violence to nature. For when they 
know that such heiresses may make choice of others to grant 
their favors to, they will either let those matches alone, or, 
if they do marry in that manner, they must suffer the shame 

* The ephetm were first appointed in the reign of Demophon, the son of 
Theseus, for the trying of wilful murders, and cases of manslaughter. They 
consisted at fir^t of fifty Athenians, and as many Argives; but Draco excluded 
the Argives, and ordered that it should be composed of fifty -one Athenians, 
who were all to be turned of fifty years of age. He also fixed their authority 
above that of the areopagites ; but Solon brought them under that court, and 
limited their jurisdiction. 

t Aulus Gellius, who has preserved the very words of this law, adds, that 
one who has stood neuter, should lose his houses, his country and estate, and 
be sent out an exile, — Noct. Attic, 1. ii. c. 12. 

Plutarch, in another place, condemns this law ; but Gellius highly commends 
it, and assigns this reason :— The wise and just, as well as the envious and wick- 
ed, being obliged to choose some side, matters were easily accommodated; 
whereas, if the latter only, as is generally the case with other cities, had the 
management of factions, they would, for private reasons, be continually kept 
up, to the great hurt, if not the utter ruin, of the State. 



352 solon. 

of their avarice and dishonesty. It is right that the heiress 
should not have liberty to choose at large, but only amongst 
her husband's relations, that the child which is born may, at 
least, belong to his kindred and family. Agreeable to this is 
the direction that the bride aud bridegroom should be shut up 
together, and eat of the same quince* 

In all other marriages, he ordered that no dowries should 
be given ; the bride was to bring with her only three suits of 
clothes, and some household stuff of small value.f For he did 
not choose that marriages should be made with mercenary or 
venal views, but would have that union cemented by the en- 
dearment of children, and every other instance of love and 
friendship. Nay, Dionysius himself, when his mother desired 
to be married to a young Syracusan, told her, — " He had, in- 
deed, by his tyranny broke through the laws of his country, 
but he could not break those of nature, by countenancing so 
disproportionate a match." And, surely, such disorders 
should not be tolerated in any State, nor such matches, where 
there is no equality of years, or inducements of love, or prob- 
ability that the end of marriage will be answered. So that 
to an old man who marries a young woman, some prudent 
magistrate or lawgiver might express himself in the words ad- 
dressed to Philoctetes : — 

Poor soul ! how fit art thou to marry ! 

And if he found a young man in the house of a rich old wo- 
man, like a partridge, growing fat in his private services, he 
would remove him to some young virgin who wanted a hus- 
band. But enough of this. 

That law of Solon's is also justly commended, which forbids 

* The eating of the quince, which was not peculiar to an heiress and her hus- 
band (for all newly-married people ate it), implied that their discourses ought 
to be pleasant to each other, that fruit making the breath sweet. 

t The bride brought with her an earthen pan, called phrogeteon, wherein 
barley was parched ; to signify that she undertook the business of the house, 
and would do her part towards providing for the family. 



solon. 353 

men to speak ill of the dead. For piety requires us to consider 
the deceased as sacred ; justice calls upou us to spare those 
that are not in being ; and good policy, to prevent the per- 
petuating of hatred. He forbade his people also to revile the 
living, in a temple, in a court of justice, in the great assembly 
of the people, or at the public games. He that offended in 
this respect, was to pay three drachmas to the person injured, 
and two to the public. Never to restrain anger is, indeed, a 
proof of weakness or want of breeding ; and always to guard 
against it, is very difficult, and to some persons impossible. 
Now what is enjoined by law should be practicable, if the 
legislator desires to punish a few to some good purpose, and 
not many to no purpose. 

His law concerning wills has likewise its merit. For be- 
fore his time the Athenians were not allowed to dispose of 
their estates by will : the houses and other substance of the 
deceased were to remain among his relations. But he permit- 
ted any one, that had not children, to leave his possessions to 
whom he pleased ; thus preferring the tie of friendship to that 
of kindred, and choice to necessity, he gave every man the 
full and free disposal of his own. Yet he allowed not all sorts 
of legacies, but those only that were not extorted by frenzy, 
the consequence of disease or poisons, by imprisonment or 
violence, or the persuasions of a' wife. For he considered in- 
ducements, that operated against reason, as no better than 
force ; to be deceived, was with Mm the same thing as to be 
compelled ; and he looked upon pleasure to be as great a per- 
verter as pain * 

He regulated, moreover, the journeys of women, their 
mournings and sacrifices, and endeavored to keep them clear 
of all disorder and excess. They were not to go out of town 

* He likewise ordained, that adopted persons should make no will ; but as 
soon as they had children lawfully begotten, they were at liberty to return into 
the family whence they were adopted : or if they continued in it to their death, 
the estates reverted to the relations of the persons who adopted them.— Demos 
in Or at, in Jjeptiv. 

30* 



354 solon. 

with more than three habits ; the provisions they carried with 
them were not to exceed the value of an obulus ; their basket 
was not to be above a cubit high ; and in the night they were 
not to travel but in a carriage, with a torch before them. At 
funerals, they were forbid to tear themselves,* and no hired 
mourner was to utter lamentable notes, or to act anything else 
that tended to excite sorrow. They were not permitted to 
sacrifice an ox on those occasions ; or to bury more than three 
garments with the body ; or to visit any tombs beside those 
of their own family, except at the time of interment. Most 
of these things are likewise forbidden by our laws, with the 
addition of this circumstance, that those who offend in such a 
manner, are fined by the censors of the women, as giving way 
to weak passions and childish sorrow. 

As the city was filled with persons, who assembled from all 
parts, on account of the great security in which people lived 
in Attica, Solon observing this, and that the country withal 
was poor and barren, and that merchants who traffic by sea do 
not use to import their goods where they can have nothing in 
exchange, turned the attention of the citizens to manufactures. 
For this purpose he made a law, that no son should be obliged 
to maintain his father, if he had not taught him a trade.t As 
for Lycurgus, whose city was clear of strangers, and whose 
country, according to Euripides, was sufficient for twice the 
number of inhabitants ; where there was, moreover, a multi- 
tude of Helotes, who were not only to be kept constantly em- 

* Demosthenes (in Timocr.) recites Solon's directions as to funerals as fol- 
lows: — " Let the dead bodies be laid out in the house according as the deceased 
gave order, and the day following, before sun-rise, carried forth. Whilst the 
body is carrying to the grave, let the men go before, the women follow. It shall 
not be lawful for any woman to enter upon the goods of the dead, and to follow 
the body to the grave under threescore years of age, except such as are within the 
degrees of cousins." 

f He that was thrice convicted of idleness was to be declared infamous. 
Herodotus (1. vii.) and Diodorus Siculus (1. i.) agree that a law of this kind was 
in use in Egypt. It is probable, therefore, that Solon, who was thoroughly ac- 
quainted with the learning of that nation, borrowed it from them. 



solon. 355 

ployed, but to be humbled and worn out by servitude, it was 
right for him to set the citizens free from laborious and me- 
chanic arts, and to employ them in arms, as the only art fit 
for them to learn and exercise. But Solon, rather adapting 
his laws to the state of his country, than his country to his 
laws, and perceiving that the soil of Attica, which hardly re- 
warded the husbandman's labor, was far from being capable 
of maintaining a lazy multitude, ordered that trades should 
be accounted honorable ; that the council of the areopagus 
should examine into every man's means of subsisting, and 
chastise the idle. 

But that law was more rigid, which (as Heraclides of Pon- 
tus informs us) excused bastards from relieving their fathers. 
Nevertheless, the man that disregards so honorable a state as 
marriage, does not take a woman for the sake of children, but 
merely to indulge his appetite. He has therefore his re- 
wards ; and there remains no pretence for him to upbraid 
those children,. Avhose very birth he has made a reproach to 
them. 

In truth, his laws concerning women, in general, appear 
very absurd ; for he permitted any one to kill an adulterer 
taken in the fact ;* but if a man committed a rape upon a 
free woman, he was only to be fined a hundred drachmas ; if 
he gained his purpose by persuasion, twenty ; but prostitutes 
were excepted, because they have their price. And he would 
not allow them to sell a daughter or sister, unless she were 
taken in an act of dishonor before marriage. But to punish 
the same fault sometimes in a severe and rigorous manner, and 
sometimes lightly and as it were in sport, with a trivial fine, is 
not agreeable to reason, unless the scarcity of money in Athens 
at that time made a pecuniary mulct a heavy one. And, in- 
deed, in the valuation of things for the sacrifice, a sheep and a 

* No adulteress was to adorn herself, or to assist at the public sacrifices ; and 
in case she did, lie gave liberty to any one to tear her clothes off her back, and 
beat her into the bargain. 



356 solon. 

medimnus of corn were reckoned each at a drachma only. 
To the victor in the Isthmian games, he appointed a reward 
of a hundred drachmas; and to the victor in the Olympian, 
five hundred* He that caught a he-wolf, was to have five 
drachmas ; he that took a she-wolf, one ; and the former sum 
(as Demetrius Phalereus asserts) was the value of an ox, the 
latter of a sheep. 

As Attica was not supplied with water from perennial riv- 
ers, lakes, or springs, but chiefly by wells dug for that pur- 
pose, he made a law, that where there was a public well, all 
within the distance of four furlongs should make use of it; 
but where the distance was greater, they were to provide a 
well of their own. And if they dug ten fathoms deep in their 
own ground, and could find no water, they had liberty to 
fill a vessel of six gallons twice a day at their neighbor's. 
Thus he thought it proper to assist persons in real necessity, 
but not to encourage idleness. His regulations with respect 
to the planting of trees were also very judicious. He that 
planted any tree in his field, was to place it at least five feet 
from his neighbor's ground ; and if it was a fig-tree or an 
olive, nine ; for these extend their roots further than others, 
and their neighborhood is prejudicial to some trees, not only 
as they take away the nourishment, but their effluvia is nox- 
ious. He that would dig a pit or a ditch, was to dig it as far 
from another man's ground as it was deep ; and if any one 
would raise a stock of bees, he was to place them three hun- 
dred feet from those already raised by another. 

Of all the products of the earth, he allowed none to be sold 
to strangers but oil ; and whoever presumed to export any- 
thing else, the archon was solemnly to declare him accursed, 
or to pay himself a hundred drachmas into the public treas- 

* At the same time he contracted the rewards bestowed upon wrestlers, es- 
teeming such gratuities useless, and even dangerous ; as they tended to encour- 
age idleness, by putting men upon wasting that time in exercises, which ought 
to be spent in providing for their families. 



SOLON. 35? 

nry. This law is in the first table. And therefore it is not ab- 
solutely improbable, what some affirm, that the exportation 
of figs was formerly forbidden, and that the informer against 
the delinquent was called a sycophant. 

He likewise enacted a law for reparation of damage re- 
ceived from beasts. A dog that had bit a man was to be de- 
livered up bound to a log of four cubits long ;* an agreeable 
contrivance for security against such an animal. 

But the wisdom of the law concerning the naturalizing of 
foreigners is a little dubious ; because it forbids the freedom of 
the city to be granted to any but such as are forever exiled 
from their own country, or transplant themselves to Athens 
with their whole family, for the sake of exercising some man- 
ual trade. This, we are told, he did, not with a view to keep 
strangers at a distance, but rather to invite them to Athens, 
upon the sure hope of being admitted to the privilege of citi- 
zens ; and he imagined the settlement of those might be en- 
tirely depended upon, who had been driven from their na- 
tive country, or had quitted it by choice. 

That law is peculiar to Solon which regulates the going to 
entertainments made at the public charge, by him called par- 
asitein.i For he does not allow the same person to repair to 
them often ; and he lays a penalty upon such as refuse to go 
when invited ; looking upon the former as a mark of epicur- 
ism, and the latter of contempt of the public 

* This law and several others of Solon, were taken, into the twelve tables. 
In the consulate of T. Romilius and C. Veturius, in the year of Rome, 293, 
the Romans sent deputies to Athens, to transcribe his laws, and those of 
the other lawgivers of Greece, in order to form thereby a body of laws for 
Rome. 

t In the first ages the name of parasite was venerable and sacred, for it prop- 
erly signified one that was a messmate at the table of sacrifices. There were 
in Greece several persons particularly honored with this title, much like those 
whom the Romans called epulones, a religious order instituted by Nama. So- 
lon ordained that every tribe should offer a sacrifice once a month, and at the 
end of the sacrifice make a public entertainment, at which a'.l who were of 
that tribe should be obliged to assist by turns. 



358 solon. 

All his laws were to continue in force for a hundred years, 
and were written upon wooden tables, which might be turned 
round in the oblong cases that contained them. Some small 
remains of them are preserved in the Prytanium to this da} 7 . 
They were called cyrbes, as Aristotle tells us ; and Cratinus, 
the comic poet, thus spoke of them: — 

By the great names of Solon and of Draco, 
Whose cyrbes now but serve to boil our pulse. 

Some say, those tables were properly called cyrbes, on which 
were written the rules for religious rites and sacrifices, and the 
other axones. The senate, in a body, bound themselves by 
oath to establish the laws of Solon ; and the thesmothetce, or 
guardians of the laws, severally took an oath in a particular 
form, by the stone in the market-place, that for every law they 
broke, each would dedicate a golden statue at Delphi of the 
same weight with himself.* 

Observing the irregularity of the month, f and that the 
moon neither rose nor set at the same time with the sun, as 

* Gold, in Solon's time, was so scarce in Greece, that when the Spartans were 
ordered by the oracle to gild the face of Apollo's statue, they inquired in vain 
for gold all over Greece, and were directed by the pythoness to buy some of 
Croesus, king of Lydia. 

t Solon discovered the falseness of Thales' maxim, that the moon performed 
her revolution in thirty days, and found that the true time was twenty-nine days 
and a half. He directed, therefore, that each of the twelve months should be 
accounted twenty-nine or thirty days alternately. By this means a lunar year 
was formed of 354 days ; and to reconcile it to the solar year, he ordered a month 
of twenty-two days to be intercalated every two years, and at the end of the 
second two years, he directed that a month of twenty-three days should be in- 
tercalated. He likewise engaged the Athenians to divide their months into 
three parts, styled the beginning, middle, and ending ; each of these consisted 
of ten days, when the month was thirty days long, and the last of nine, when 
it was nine-and-twenty days long. In speaking of the two first parts, they reck- 
oned according to the usual order of numbers, viz. the first, &c. day of the 
moon, beginning ; the first, second, &c. of the moon, middle ; but with re- 
spect to the last part of the month, they reckoned backwards, that is, instead 
of saying, the first, second, &c. day of the moon, ending, they said, the tenth, 
ninth, &c. of the moon, ending. This is a circumstance which should be care- 
fully attended to. 



solon. 359 

it often happened that in the same day she overtook and 
passed by him, he ordered that the day he called hene Jcai nea 
(the old and the new); assigning the part of it before the con- 
junction to the old month, and the rest to the beginning of 
the new. He seems, therefore, to have been the first who 
understood that verse in Homer, which makes mention of a 
day wherein " the old month ended and the new began."* 

The day following he called the new moon. After the 
twentieth he counted not by adding, but subtracting, to the 
thirtieth, according to the decreasing phases of the moon. 

When his laws took place,! Solon had his visitors every 
day finding fault with some of them, and commending* oth- 
ers, or advising him to make certain additions or retrench- 
ments. But the greater part came to desire a reason for this 
or that article, or a clear and precise explication of the mean- 
ing and design. Sensible that he could not well excuse him- 
self from complying with their desires, and that if he in- 
dulged their importunity, the doing it might give offence, he 

* Odyss. xiv. 162. 

t Plutarch has only mentioned such of Solon's laws as he thought the most 
singular and remarkable: Diogenes Laertius and Demosthenes have given lis 
an account of some others that ought not to be forgotten : — " Let not the guard- 
ian live in the same house with the mother of his wards. Let not the tuition 
of minors be committed to him who is next after them in the inheritance. Let 
not an engraver keep the impression of a seal which he has engraved. Lei him 
that puts out the eye of a man who has but one, lose both his own. If an archon 
is taken in liquor, let him be put to death. Let him who refuses to maintain 
his father and mother, be infamous ; and so let him that has consumed his pat- 
rimony. Let him who refuses to go to war, flees, or behaves cowardly, be de- 
barred the precincts of the forum, and places of public worship. If a man sur- 
prises his wife in adultery, and lives with her afterwards, let him be deemed 
infamous. Let him who frequents the houses of lewd women, be debarred 
from speaking in the assemblies of the people. Let a pander be pursued, and 
put to death if taken. If any man steal in the day-time, let him be carried to 
the eleven officers ; if in the night, it shall be lawful to kill him in the act, or 
to wound him in the pursuit, and carry him to the aforesaid officers; if he 
steals common things, let him pay double, and if the convictor thinks fit, be ex- 
posed in chains five days ; if he be guilty of sacrilege, let him be put to 
death." 



360 



SOLON 



determined to withdraw from the difficulty, and to get rid at 
once of their cavils and exceptions ; for, as he himself ob- 
serves, 

Not all the greatest enterprise can please. 

Under pretence therefore of traffic, he set sail for another 
. country, having obtained leave of -the Athenians for ten years' 
absence. In that time he hoped his laws would become fa- 
miliar to them. 

His first voyage was to Egypt, where he abode some time, 
as he himself relates, 

On the Canopian shore, by Nile's deep mouth. 
There he conversed upon points of philosophy, with Pseno- 
phis the Heliopolitan, and Senchis the Sa'ite, the most learned 
of the Egyptian priests ; and having an account from them of 
the Atlantis Island,* (as Plato informs us,) he attempted to de- 
scribe it to the Grecians in a poem. From Egypt he sailed 
to Cyprus, and there was honored with the best regards of 
Philocyprus, one of the kings of that island, who reigned 
over a small city built by Dernophon, the son of Theseus, near 
the river Olarius, in a strong situation indeed, but very indif- 
ferent soil. As there was an agreeable plain below, Solon 
persuaded him to build a larger and pleasanter city there, and 

* Plato finished this history from Solon's memoirs, as may be seen in his Ti- 
maeus and Critias. He pretends, that this Atlantis, an island situated in the 
Atlantic ocean, was bigger than Asia and Africa ; and that notwithstanding its 
vast extent, it was drowned in one day and night. Diodorus Siculus says, the 
Carthaginians, who discovered it, made it death for any one to settle in it. 
Amidst a number of conjectures concerning it, one of the most probable is, 
that in those days the Africans had some knowledge of Amerrea. Another 
opinion worth mentioning is, that the Atlantides, or Fortunate islands, were 
what we now call the Canaries. Homer thus describes them : — 

Stern winter smiles on that auspicious clime : 

The fields are florid with unfading prime. 

From the bleak pole no winds inclement blow, 

Mould the round hail, or flake the fleecy snow ; 

But from the breezy deep the blest inhale 

The fragrant murmurs of the western gale. 



SOLON. 361 

to remove the inhabitants of the other to it. He also assisted 
in laying out the whole, and building it in the best manner 
for convenience and defence ; so that Philocyprus in a short 
time had it so well peopled, as to excite the envy of the other 
princes. And therefore, though the former city was called 
Aipeia, yet, in honor of Solon, he called the new one Soli. 
He himself speaks of the building of this city, in his Elegies, 
addressing himself to Philocyprus : — 

For you be long the Solian throne decreed ! 
For you a race of prosperous sons succeed 
If in those scenes to her so justly dear, 
My hand a blooming city help'd to rear, 
May the sweet voice of smiling Venus bless, 
And speed me home with honors and success ! 

As for his interview with Croesus, some .pretend to prove 
from chronology that it is fictitious. But since the story is so 
famous, and so well attested, nay (what is more) so agreeable 
to Solon's character, so worthy of his wisdom and magna- 
nimity, I cannot prevail with myself to reject it for the sake 
of certain chronological tables, which thousands are correct- 
ing to this day, without being able to bring them to any cer- 
tainty. Solon, then, is said to have gone to Sardis, at the re- 
quest of Croesus ; and when he came there, he was affected much 
in the same manner as* a person born in an inland country, 
when he first goes to see the ocean ; for as he takes every great 
river he comes to for the sea, so Solon, as he passed through 
the court, and saw many of the nobility richly dressed, and 
walking in great pomp amidst a crowd of attendants and 
guards, took each of them for Croesus. At last, when he was 
conducted into the presence, he found the king set off with 
whatever can be imagined curious and valuable, either in 
beauty of colors, elegance of golden ornaments, or splendor of 
jewels ; in order that the grandeur and variety of the scene 
might be as striking as possible. Solon, standing over against 
the throne, was not at all surprised, nor did he pay those com- 
pliments that were expected ; on the contrary, it was plain to 
31 



362 solon. 

all persons of discernment, that he despised such vain ostenta- 
tion and littleness of pride. Orcesus then ordered his treasures 
to be opened, and his magnificent apartments and furniture to 
be shown him ; but this was quite a needless trouble ; for 
Solon, in one view of the king, was able to read his character. 
"When he had seen all, and was conducted back, Orcesus asked 
him, " If he had ever beheld a happier man than he ?" Solon 
answered, — " He had ; and that the person was one Tellus, a 
plain but worthy citizen of Athens, who left valuable children 
behind him ; and who having been above the want of neces- 
saries all his life, died gloriously fighting for his country." 
By this time he appeared to Orcesus to be a strange, uncouth 
kind of rustic, who did not measure happiness by the quan- 
tity of gold and silver, but could prefer the life and death of 
a private and mean person to Ms high dignity and power. 
However, he asked him again, — " Whether after Tellus, he 
knew another happier man in the world ?" Solon answered, 
— " Yes, Cleobis and Biton, famed for their brotherly affection, 
and dutiful behavior to their mother; for the oxen not being 
ready, they put themselves in the*harness, and drew their 
mother to Juno's temple, who was extremely happy in having 
such sons, and mc^ved forward amidst the blessings of the 
people. After the sacrifice, they drank a cheerful cup with 
their friends, and then laid down to rest, but rose no more ; 
for they died in the night without sorrow or pain, in the 
midst of so much glory." " Well!" said Orcesus, now highly 
displeased, " and do you not then rank us in the number of 
happy men !" Solon, unwilling either to flatter him, or to ex- 
asperate him more, replied, — " King of Lydia, as God has 
given the Greeks a moderate proportion of other things, so 
likewise he has favored them with a democratic spirit, and a 
liberal kind of wisdom, which has no taste for the splendors 
of royalty. Moreover, the vicissitudes of life suffer us not to 
be elated by any present good fortune, or to admire that fe- 
licity which is liable to change. Futurity carries for every man 



solox. 363 

many various and uncertain events in its bosom. He. there- 
fore, whom heaven blesses with success to the last, is in our 
estimation the happy man. Bnt the happiness of him who 
still lives, and has the dangers of life to encounter, appears to 
us no better than that of a champion before the combat is de- 
termined, and while the crown is uncertain." "With these 
words Solon departed, leaving Crcesus chagrined, but not in- 
structed. 

At that time JEsop the fabulist was at the court of Crcesus. 
who had sent for him, and caressed him not a little. He was 
concerned at the unkind reception Solon met with, and there- 
upon gave him this advice, — "A man should either not con- 
with kings at all, or say what is agreeable to them." To 
which Solon replied, — " Xay. but he should either not do it 
at all. or say what is useful to them." 

Though Crcesus at that time held our lawgiver in contempt, 
yet when he was defeated in his wars with Cyrus, when his 
city was taken, himself made prisoner, and laid bound upon 
the pile, in order to be burnt, in the presence of Cyrus, and 
all the Persians, he cried out as loud as he possibly could, — 
-Solon! Solon! Solon!" Cyrus, surprised at this, sent to in- 
quire of him, — " What God or man it was, whom alone he 
thus invoked under so great a calamity?" Croesus answered, 
without the least disguise. — u He is one of the wise men of 
Greece, whom I sent for, not with a design to hear his wisdom, 
or to learn what might be of service to me, but that he might 
see and extend the reputation of that glory, the loss of which 
I find a much greater misfortune than the possession of it was 
a blessing. My exalted state was only an exterior advantage, 
the happiness of opinion ; but the reverse plunges me into 
real sufferings, and ends in misery irremediable. This was 
foreseen by that great man, who, forming a conjecture of the 
future from what he then saw, advised me to consider the end 
of life, and not to rely or grow insolent upon uncertainties." 
When this was told Cyrus, who was a much wiser man than 



364 solon. 

Croesus, finding Solon's maxim confirmed by an example be- 
fore him, he not only set Croesus at liberty, but honored him 
with his protection as long as he lived. Thus Solon had the 
glory of saving the life of one of these kings, and of instruct- 
ing the other. 

During his absence, the Athenians were much divided 
among themselves ; Lycurgus being at the head of the low 
country, Megacles, the son of Alcmaeon, of the people that 
lived near the sea-coast, and Pisistratus of the mountaineers, 
among which last was a multitude of laboring people, whose 
enmity was chiefly levelled at the rich. Hence it was, that 
though the city did observe Solon's laws, yet all expected 
some change, and were desirous of another establishment; 
not in hopes of an equality, but with a view to be gainers by 
the alteration, and entirely to subdue those that differed from 
them. 

While matters stood thus, Solon arrived at Athens, where 
he was received with great respect, and still held in venera- 
tion by all ; but, by reason of his great age, he had neither 
the strength nor spirit to act or speak in public as he had done. 
He, therefore, applied in private to the heads of the factions, 
and endeavored to appease and reconcile them, Pisistratus 
seemed to give him greater attention than the rest; for Pisis- 
tratus had an affable and engaging manner. He was a liberal 
benefactor to the poor ;* and even to his enemies he behaved 
with great candor. He counterfeited so dexterously the good 
qualities which nature had denied him, that he gained more 
credit than the real possessors of them, and stood foremost in 
the public esteem, in point of moderation and equity, in zeal 
for the present government, and aversion to all that endeavor- 



* By the poor we are not to understand such as asked alms, for there were 
none such at Athens. " In those days," says Tsocrates, " there was no citizen 
that died of want, or begged in the streets, to the dishonor of the community." 
This was owing to the laws against idleness and prodigality, and the care which 
the areopagus took that every man should have a visible livelihood. 



solon. 365 

ed at a change. With these arts he imposed upon the people ; 
but Solon soon discovered his real character, and was the first 
to discern his insidious designs. Yet he did not absolutely 
break with him, but endeavored to soften him, and advise him 
better ; declaring both to him and others, that if ambition 
could but be banished from his soul, and he could be cured of 
his desire of absolute power, there would not be a man better 
disposed, or a more worthy citizen in Athens. 

About this time, Thespis began to change the form of trag- 
edy, and the novelty of the thing attracted many spectators ; 
for this was before any prize was proposed for those that ex- 
celled in this respect. Solon, who was always willing to hear 
and to learn, and in his old age more inclined to anything that 
might divert and entertain, particularly to music and good 
fellowship, went to see Thespis himself exhibit, as the custom 
of the ancient poets was. When the play was done, he called 
to Thespis, and asked him, — " If he was not ashamed to tell so 
many lies before so great an assembly?" Thespis answered, — 
" It was no great matter, if he spoke or acted so in jest." To 
which Solon replied, striking the ground violently with his 
staff, — " If we encourage such jesting as this, we shall quickly 
find it in our contracts and agreements." 

Soon after this, Pisistratus, having wounded himself for the 
purpose, drove in that condition into the market-place, and 
endeavored to inflame the minds of the people, by telling 
them his enemies had laid in wait for him, and treated him in 
that manner on account of his patriotism. Upon this the mul- 
titude loudly expressed their indignation ; but Solon came up, 
and thus accosted him : — " Son of Hippocrates, you act Ho- 
mer's Ulysses but very indifferently ; for he wounded himself 
to deceive his enemies, but you have done it to impose upon 
your countrymen." Notwithstanding this, the rabble were 
ready to take up arms for him ; and a general assembly of the 
people being summoned, Ariston made a motion that a body- 
guard of fifty clubmen should be assigned him. Solon stood 
31* 



366 solon. 

up and opposed it with many arguments, of the same kind 
with those he has left us in his poems : — 

You hang with rapture on his honey'd tongue. 

And again, — 

Your art, to public interest ever blind, 
Your fox-like art still centres in yourself. 

But when he saw the poor behave in a riotous manner, and 
determined to gratify Pisistratus at any rate, while the rich, 
out of fear, declined the opposition, he retired with this dec- 
laration, that he had shown more wisdom than the former, 
in discerning what method should have been taken ; and more 
courage than the latter, who did not want understanding, but 
spirit to oppose the establishment of a tyrant. The people 
having made the decree, did not curiously inquire into the 
number of guards which Pisistratus employed, but visibly con- 
nived at his keeping as many as he pleased, till he seized the 
citadel. When this was done, and the city in great confusion, 
Megacles, with the rest of the Alcmgeonidee, immediately took 
to flight. But Solon, though he was now very old, and had 
none to second him, appeared in public, and addressed him- 
self to the citizens, sometimes upbraiding them with their past 
indiscretion and cowardice, sometimes exhorting and encour- 
aging them to stand up for their liberty. Then it was that 
he spoke those memorable words, — "It would have been easier 
for them to repress the advances of tyranny, and prevent its 
establishment ; but now it was established, and grown to some 
height, it would be more glorious to demolish it." However, 
finding that their fears prevented their attention to what he 
said, he returned to his own house, and placed his weapons at 
the street door, with these words,—" I have done all in my 
power to defend my country and its laws." This was his last 
public effort. Though some exhorted him to fly, he took no 
notice of their advice, but was composed enough to make 
verses, in which he thus reproaches the Athenians :— 



- • lok. 367 

It" tear or folly has your rights bttray'd. 

Let not the fault on righteous heav'n be laid, 

You gave them guards, you rais'd your tyrants high, 

T impose th9 heavy yoke that draws the heaving sigh. 

Many of his friends alarmed at this, told him the tyrant 
would certainly put him to death for it. and asked him what 
he trusted to, that he went such imprudent lengths ? He an- 
swered, — " To old age.'" However, when Pisistratus had 
fully established himself, he made his court to Solon, and 
treated him with so much kindness and respect, that Solon 
became as it were his counsellor, and gave sanction to many 
of his proceedings. He observed the greatest part of Solon's 
laws, showing himself the example, and obliging his friends 
to follow it. Thus, when he was accused of murder before 
the court of areopagus, he appeared in a modest manner to 
make his defence ; bat his accuser dropped the impeachment. 
He likewise added other laws, one of which was, that " per- 
sons maimed in the wars should be maintained at the public 
charge." Yet this, Heracliues tells us, was in pursuance of 
Solon's plan, who had decreed the same in the case of Ther- 
sippus. But, according to Theophrastus, Pisistratus, not So- 
lon, made the law against idleness which produced at once 
greater industry in the country, and tranquillity in the city. 

Solon, moreover, attempted in verse a large description, or 
rather fabulous account of the Atlantis island,* which he had 
learned of the wise men of Sais, and which particularly con- 
cerned the Athenians; but by reason of his age, not want of 
leisure (as Plato would have it), he was apprehensive the work 
would be too much for him, and therefore did not go through 
with ir. These verses are a proof that business was not the 

Linderance : — 

I grow iu learning as I grow in years. 

* This fable imported, that the people of Atlantis, having subdued all Lybia 
and a great part of Europe, threatened Egypt and Greece ; but the Athenians 
making head against their victorious army, overthrew them in several engage- 
ments, and confined them to their own island. 



SPEUSIPPUS. 

And again : — 

Wine, wit, and beauty still their charms bestow, 
Light all the shades of life, and cheer us as we go. 

Plato, ambitious to cultivate and adorn the subject of the At- 
lantis island, as a delightful spot in some fair field unoccupied, 
to which also he had some claim, by his being related to 
Solon, laid out magnificent courts and enclosures, and erect- 
ed a grand entrance to it, such as no other story, fable 
or poem, ever had. But as he began it late, he ended his life 
before the work. Phanias tells us Solon died in the archon- 
ship of Hegestratus. The story of his ashes being scattered 
about the isle of Salamis appears absurd and fabulous ; and 
yet it is related by several authors of credit, and by Aristotle 
in particular. 

Diogenes Laertius says that his bones were burned in Sala- 
mis, and his ashes scattered over the ground by his own 
order. And he has written the following epigram upon him : — 

The Cyprian flame devoured great Solon's corse, 

Far in a foreign land ; but Salamis 
Retains his bones, whose dust is turned to corn. 

The tablets of his laws do bear aloft 
His mind to heaven. Such a burden light 

Are these immortal rules to th' happy wood. 



SPEUSIPPUS. 



Spettsippus was the successor of Plato in the Academy, to 
whose doctrines he always adhered, though he was not of the 
same disposition as he. For he was a passionate man, and a 
slave to pleasure. Accordingly, they say that he once in a 
rage threw a puppy into a well ; and that for the sake of 
amusement, he went all the way to Macedonia to the marriage 
of Cassander. 

The female pupils of Plato, Lasthenea of Mantinea, and Axio- 



speusippus. 369 

thea of Philus, are said to have become disciples of Speusippus 
also. And Dionysius, writing to him in a petulant manner, 
says, " And one may learn philosophy too from your female 
disciple from Arcadia ; moreover, Plato used to take his pupils 
without exacting any fee from them ; but you collect tribute 
from yours, whether willing or unwilling." 

He was the first man, as Diodorus relates in the first book 
of his Commentaries, who investigated in his school what was 
common to the several sciences ; and who endeavored, as far 
as possible, to maintain their connection with each other. He 
was also the first who published those things which Isocrates 
called secrets, as Casneus tells us. And the first, too, who 
found out how to make light baskets of bundles of twigs. 

But he became afflicted with paralysis, and sent to Xenoc- 
rates, inviting him to become his successor in the school. Once 
when he was being borne in a carriage into the Academy, he 
met Diogenes, and said "Hail ;" and Diogenes replied, " I will 
not say hail to you who, though in such a state as you are, en- 
dure to live." Others relate the story thus : "When Diogenes 
refused to return his salutation, he at the same time said, 
" Such a feeble wretch ought to be ashamed to live ;" to which 
Speusippus replied that he u lived not in his limbs but in his 
mind." 

Speusippus said to a rich man who was in love with an ugly 
woman, " What do you want with her ? I will find you a much 
prettier woman for ten talents." In a fit of despondency he 
committed suicide. Diogenes Laertius wrote the following 
epigram upon him : — 

Had I not known Speusippus thus had died, 
No one would have persuaded me that he 

Was e'er akin to Plato ; who would never 
Have died desponding for so slight a grief. 



370 stilpo, 



STILPO. 

Stilpo, a native of Megara, in Greece, was a pupil of some 
of Euclides' school. But some say that he was a pupil of 
Euclides himself. 

And he was so much superior to all his fellows in command 
of words and in acuteness, that it may almost be said that all 
Greece fixed its eyes upon him, and joined theMegaric school. 
Concerning him Philippus of Megara speaks thus, word for 
word : — " For he carried off from Theophrastus, Metrodorus 
the speculative philosopher, and Timagoras of Gela ; and 
Aristotle the Cyrenaic, he robbed of Olitarchus and Simias ; 
and from the dialecticians' school also he won men over, 
carrying off Poeoneius from Aristides, and Dippilus of the 
Bosphorus from Euphantus, and also Myrmex of the Yenites, 
who had both come to him to argue against him, but they 
became converts and his disciples." Besides these men, he 
attracted to his school Phrasidemus the Peripatetic, a natural 
philosopher of great ability, Aloimus the rhetorician, the most 
eminent orator in all Greece at that time ; and Orates, with 
a great number of others, among whom was Zeno the Phoeni- 
cian. 

He was very fond of the study of politics. Though he was 
married, he lived also with a courtesan, named Nicarete. And 
he had a licentious daughter, who was married to a friend of 
his named Simias, a citizen of Syracuse. And as she would 
not live in an orderly manner, some one told Stilpo that she 
was a disgrace to him. But he said, " She is not more a dis- 
grace to me than I am an honor to her." 

Ptolemy Soter, it is said, received him with great honor ; 
and when he had made himself master of Megara, he gave 
him money, and invited him to sail with him to Egypt. But 
he accepted only a moderate sum of money, and declined the 
journey proposed to him, but went over to JEgina, until 



STILPO. 371 

Ptolemy Lad sailed. Also when Demetrius, the son of Antig- 
onus, had taken Megara, he ordered Stilpo's house to be saved, 
and took care that everything that had been plundered from 
him should be restored to him. But when he wished Stilpo 
to give him in a list of all that he had lost, he said that he 
had lost nothing of his own ; for that no one had taken from 
him his learning, and that he still had his eloquence aud his 
knowledge. And he conversed with Demetrius on the subject 
of doing good to men with such power, that he became a 
zealous hearer of his. 

They say that he once put such a question as this to a man, 
about the Minerva of Phidias : — " Is Minerva the Goddess the 
daughter of Jupiter?" And when the other said, "Yes;" 
" But this," said he, " is not the child of Jupiter, but of 
Phidias." And when he was brought before the Areopagus 
for this speech, he did not deny it, but maintained that he had 
spoken correctly ; for that she was not a God (theos) but a 
Goddess (thea) ; for that Gods were of the male sex only* 
However, the judges of the Areopagus ordered him to leave 
the city ; and on this occasion, Theodoras, who was nicknamed 
Theos, said in derision, " Whence did Stilpo learn this ? and 
how could he tell whether she was a God or a Goddess V 
But Theodoras was in truth a most impudent fellow. But 
Stilpo was a most witty and elegant-minded man. Accord- 
ingly, when Crates asked him if the Gods delighted in adoration 
and prayer ; they say that he answered, " Do not ask these 
questions, you foolish man, in the road, but in private." And 
they say, too, that Bion, when he was asked whether there 
were any Gods, answered in the same spirit : — 

" Will you not first, O ! miserable old man, 
Remove the multitude ?" 

But Stilpo was a man of simple character, and free from all 

trick and humbug, and universally affable. Accordingly, 

* The quibble here is, that dsdi is properly only masculine, though it is some- 
times used as feminine. 



372 



STILPO. 



when Orates the Cynic once refused to answer a question 
that he had put to him, and only insulted his questioner — 
" I knew," said Stilpo, " that he would say anything rather 
than what he ought." And once he put a question to him, and 
offered him a fig at the same time ; so he took the fig and ate 
it, on which Crates said, " Hercules, I have lost my fig." 
" Not only that," he replied, " but you have lost your question 
too, of which the fig was the pledge." At another time, he 
saw Crates shivering in the winter, and said to him, " Crates, 
you seem to me to want a new dress," meaning, both a new 
mind and a new garment ; and Crates, feeling ashamed, 
answered him in the following parody : — 

" There* Stilpo too, through the Megarian bounds, 
Pours out deep groans, where Syphon's voice resounds, 
And there he oft doth argue, while a school 
Of eager pupils owns his subtle rule, 
And virtue's name with eager chase pursues." 

It is said that at Athens he attracted all the citizens to such 
a degree, that they used to run from their workshops to look 
at him ; and when some one said to him, u Why, Stilpo, they 
wonder at you as if you were a wild beast," he replied, " Not 
so ; but as a real genuine man." 

He was a very clever arguer ; and rejected the theory of 
species. And he used to say that a person who spoke of man 
in general, was speaking of nobody ; for that he was not speak- 
ing of this individual, nor of that one : for speaking in general, 
how can he speak more of this person than of that person ? 
therefore he is not speaking of this person at all. Another 
of his illustrations was, " That which is shown to me, is not 
a vegetable ; for a vegetable existed ten thousand years ago, 
therefore this is not a vegetable." They say that once when 
he was conversing with Crates, he interrupted the discourse 
to go off and buy some fish ; and as Crates tried to drag him 

* The Greek is a parody on the descriptions of Tantalus and Sisyphus. Horn. 
Pd. ? ii. 581, 592. 



S T R A T O . 373 

back, and said, " Yon are leaving the argument :" " Not at 
all," he replied, " I keep the argument, but I am leaving 
you ; for the argument remains, but the fish will be sold to 
some one else." 

There are nine dialogues of his extant, -written in a frigid 
style. Being asked u What is harder than a stone ?" he an- 
swered " a fool." 

Hermippus says that he died at a great age, after drinking 
some wine, in order to die more rapidly. And we have writ- 
ten this epigram on him : — 

Stranger, old age at first, and then disease, 
A hateful pair, did lay wise Stilpo low, 
The pride of .Megara : he found good wine 
The best of drivers for his mournful coach, 
And drinking it, he drove on to the end. 



STEATO. 

Theopheastts was succeeded in the presidency of his school 
by Strato of Lampsacus, the son of Arcesilaus, of whom he 
had made mention in his will. He was a man of great emi- 
nence, surnamed the Xatural Philosopher, from his surpassing 
all men in the diligence with which he applied himself to the 
investigation of matters of that nature. He was also the pre- 
ceptor of Ptolemy Philadelphus, and received from him, as it 
is said, eighty talents. 

They say that he became so thin and weak, that he died 
without its being perceived. And there is an epigram of ours 
upon him in the following terras : — 

The man was thin, believe me, from the use 
Of frequent unguents ; Strato was his name, 
A citizen of Lampsacus; he struggled long 
With fell disease, and died at last unnoticed. 

32 



374 T H A L E 



THALES. 



Thaxes was the son of Euxamius and Cleobule; of the 
family of the Thelidse, who are Phoenicians by descent, among 
the most noble of all the descendants of Cadmus and Agenor, 
as Plato testifies. And he was the first man to whom the 
name of "Wise was given, when Damasius was Archon at 
Athens, in whose time also the seven wise men had that title 
given to them. He was enrolled as a citizen at Miletus when 
he came thither with. Neleus, who had been banished from 
Phoenicia; but a more common statement is that he was a 
native Milesian, of noble extraction. 

After having been immersed in state affairs he applied him- 
self to speculations in natural philosophy ; though, as some 
people state, he left no writings behind him. For the book on 
Naval Astronomy, which is attributed to him, is said in reality 
to be the work of Focus the Samian. Bat Calliraachus was 
aware that he was the discoverer of the Lesser Bear ; for in 
his Iambics he speak of him thus : 



And, he, 'tis said, did first compute the stars 
Which beam in Charles's wain, and guide the bark 
Of the Phoenician sailor o'er the sea. 

According to others he wrote two books, and no more, about 
the solstice and the equinox ; thinking that everything else 
was easily to be comprehended. According to other state- 
ments, he is said to have been the first who studied astronomy, 
and who foretold the eclipses and motions of the sun, on 
which account Xenophanes and Herodotus praise him greatly ; 
and Heraclitus and Democritus confirm this statement. 

Some again (one of whom is Chserilus the poet) say that he 
was the first person who affirmed that the souls of men were 
immortal ; and he was the first person, too, who discovered the 
path of the sun from one end of the ecliptic to the other ; and 
who, as one account tells us, defined the magnitude of the sun 



T H A L E S . 375 

as being seven hundred and twenty times as great as that of 
the moon. He was also the first person who called the last 
day of the month the thirtieth. And likewise the first to con- 
verse about natural philosophy, as some say. But Aristotle 
and Hippias say that he attributed souls also to lifeless things, 
forming his conjecture from the nature of the magnet, and of 
amber. And Pamphile relates that he, having learnt geometry 
from the Egyptians, was the first person to describe a right- 
angled triangle in a circle, and that he sacrificed an ox in hon- 
or of his discovery. But others, among whom is Apollodorus 
the calculator, say that it was Pythagoras who made this dis- 
covery. It was Thales also who carried to their greatest point 
of advancement the discoveries which Callimachus in his Iam- 
bics says were first made by Euphebus the Phrygian, such as 
those of the scalene angle, and of the triangle, and of other 
things which relate to investigations about lines. He seems 
also to have been a man of the greatest wisdom in political 
matters. Eor when Crcesus sent to the Milesians to invite 
them to an alliance, he prevented them from agreeing to it, 
which step of his, as Cyrus got the victory, proved the salva- 
tion of the city. But Clytus relates, as Heraclides assures ns, 
that he was attached to a solitary and recluse life. 

Some assert that he was married, and that he had a son 
named Cibissus ; others, on the contrary, say that he never 
had a wife, but that he adopted the son of his sister; and 
that once being asked why he did not himself become a father, 
he answered, that it was because he was fond of children. 
They say, too, that when his mother exhorted him to marry, 
he said, " £To, by Jove, it is not yet time." And afterwards, 
when he was past his youth, and she was again pressing him 
earnestly, he said, " It is no longer time." 

Hieronymus, of Ehodes, also tells us, in the second book of 
his Miscellaneous Memoranda, that when he was desirous to 
show that it was easy to get rich, he, foreseeing that there 



376 T H A L E S . 

would be a great crop of olives, took some large plantations of 
olive trees, and so made a great deal of money. 

He asserted water to be the principle of all things, and that 
the world had life, and was full of dsenions : they say, too, 
that he was the original definer of the seasons of the year, 
and that it was he who divided the year into three hundred 
and sixty -five days. And he never had any teacher except 
during the time that he went to Egypt, and associated with 
the priests. Hieronymus also says that he measured the Pyr- 
amids : watching their shadow, and calculating when they 
were of the same size as that was. He lived with Thrasy- 
bulus, the tyrant of Miletus, as we are informed by Minyas. 

Now, it is known to every one what happened with respect 
to the tripod that was found by the fishermen and sent to the 
wise men by the people of the Milesians. For they say that 
some Ionian youths bought a cast of their net from some Mi- 
lesian fishermen. And when the tripod was drawn up in the 
net there was a dispute about it ; until the Milesians sent to 
Delphi ; and the God gave them the following answer : — 

You ask about the tripod, to whom you shall present it ; 
'T is for the wisest, I reply, that fortune surely meant it. 

Accordingly they gave it to Thales, and he gave it to some 
one, who again handed it over to another, till it came to So- 
lon. But he said that it was the God himself who was the 
first in wisdom ; and so he sent it to Delphi. But Oallima- 
chus gives a different account of this in his Iambics, taking the 
tradition which he mentions from Leander the Milesian ; for 
he says that a certain Arcadian of the name of Bathydes, 
when dying, left a goblet behind him with an injunction that 
it should be given to the first of the wise men. And it was 
given to Thales, and went the whole circle till it came back 
to Thales, on which he sent it to Apollo Didymseus, adding 
(according to Oallimachus) the following distich : — 

Thales, who's twice received me as a prize, 

<5ives me to him who rules the race of Neleus. 



T H A L E S . 377 

And the prose inscription ran thus : — 

Thales the son of Euxamius, a Milesian, offers this to Apollo Didymaeus, hav- 
ing twice received it from the Greeks as the reward for virtue. 

And the name of the son of Bathydes who carried the gob- 
let about from one to the other, was Thyrion, as Eleusis tells 
us in his history of Achilles. And Alexander the Myndian 
agrees with him in the ninth book of his Traditions. But 
Eudoxus of Cnidos, and Evanthes of Miletus, say that one of 
the friends of Croesus received from the king a golden goblet, 
for the purpose of giving it to the wisest of the Greeks ; and 
that he gave it to Thales, and that it came round to Ohilo, and 
that he inquired of the God at Delphi who was wiser than 
himself; and that the God replied, Myson, whom we shall 
mention hereafter. (He is the man whom Eudoxus places 
among the seven wise men instead of Oleobolus ; but Plato 
inserts his name instead of Periander.) The God according- 
ly made this reply concerning him : — 

I say that Myson, the iEtcean sage, 
The citizen of Chen, is wiser far 
In his deep mind than you. 

The person who went to the temple to ask the question was 
Anacharsis ; but again Daadacus, the Platonic philosopher, and 
Clearchus, state that the goblet was sent by Croesus to Pitta- 
cus, and so was carried round to the different men. But 
Andron, in his book called The Tripod, says that the Argives 
offered the tripod as a prize for excellence to the wisest of the 
Greeks ; and that Aristodemus, a Spartan, was judged to de- 
serve it, but that he yielded the palm to Chilo ; and Alcseus 
mentions Aristodemus in these lines : — 

And so they say that Aristodemus once 
Uttered a truthful speech in noble Sparta : 
'T is money makes the man ; and he who 's none, 
Is counted neither good nor honorable. 

But some say that a vessel fully loaded was sent by Periander 

to Thrasybulus, the tyrant of the Milesians ; and that, as the 

32* 



378 T HALES. 

ship was wrecked in the sea, near the island of Oos, this tri- 
pod was afterwards found by some fishermen. Phanodicus 
says that it was found in the sea near Athens, and so brought 
into the city ; and then, after an assembly had been held to 
decide on the disposal, it was sent to Bias — and the reason 
why has been mentioned in our account of Bias. Others say 
that this goblet had been made by Vulcan, and presented by 
the Gods to Pelops, on his marriage ; and that subsequently it 
came into the possession of Menelaus, and was taken away by 
Paris when he carried off Helen, and was thrown into the sea 
near Cos by her, as she said that it would become a cause of 
battle. And after some time, some of the citizens of Lebedos 
having bought a net, this tripod was brought up in it ; and as 
they quarrelled with the fishermen about it, they went to Oos ; 
and not being able to get the matter settled there, they laid it 
before the Milesians, as Miletus was their metropolis ; and 
they sent ambassadors, who were treated with neglect, on 
which account they made war with the Ooans ; and after each 
side had met with many revolutions of fortune, an oracle di- 
rected that the tripod should be given to the wisest ; and 
then both parties agreed that it belonged to Thales ; and he, 
after it had gone the circuit of all the wise men, presented it 
to the Didymaaan Apollo. Now, the assignation of the oracle 
was given to the Ooans in the following words : — 

The war between the brave Ionian race 

And the proud Meropes will never cease, 

'Till the rich golden tripod which the God, 

Its maker, cast beneath the briny waves, 

Is from your city sent, and justly given 

To that wise being who knows all present things, 

And all that 's past, and all that is to come. 

And the reply given to the Milesians was — 

You ask about the tripod : 

and so on, as I have related it before. And now we have said 
enough on this subject. 



T H A L E S . 379 

But Hermippus, in bis Lives, refers to Thales what has been 
by some people reported of Socrates ; for he recites that he 
used to say that he thanked fortune for three things : — first 
of all, that he had been born a man and not a beast ; second- 
ly, that he was a man and not a woman ; and thirdly, that he 
was a Greek and not a barbarian. 

It is said that once he was led out of his house by an old 
woman for the purpose of observing the stars, and he fell into 
a ditch, and bewailed himself, on which the old woman said 
to him — " Do you, O Thales, who cannot see what is under 
your feet, think that you shall understand what is in heaven ?" 
Timon also knew that he was an astronomer, and in his Silli 
he praises him, saying : — 

Like Thales, wisest of the seven sages, 
That great astronomer. 

And Lobon, of Argos, says, that which was written by him 
extends to about two hundred verses ; and that the following 
inscription is engraved upon his statue : — 

Miletus, fairest of Ionian cities, 

Gave birth to Thales, great astronomer, 

Wisest of mortals in all kinds of knowledge. 

And these are quoted as some of his lines : — 

It is not many words that real wisdom proves ; 

Breathe rather one wise thought, 

Select one worthy object, 
So shall you best the endless prate of silly men reprove. 

And the following are quoted as sayings of his : — " God is the 
most ancient of all things, for he had no birth : the world is 
the most beautiful of things, for it is the work of God : place 
is the greatest of things, for it contains all things : intellect 
is the swiftest of things, for it runs through everything : ne- 
cessity is the strongest of things, for it rules everything : time 
is the wisest of things, for it finds out everything." 

He said also that there was no difference between life and 



380 THALES. 

death. " Why, then," said some one to him, " do not yon 
die?" "Because," said he, "it does make no difference." 
A man asked him which was made first, night or day, and he 
replied, " Night was made first by one day." Another man 
asked him whether a man who did wrong, conld escape the 
notice of the Gods. " No, not even if he thinks wrong," said 
he. An adulterer inquired of him whether he should swear 
that he had not committed adultery. " Perjury," said he, " is 
no worse than adultery." When he was asked what was very 
difficult, he said, " To know one's self." And what was easy, 
"To advise another." What was most pleasant? "To be 
successful." To the question, " What is the divinity?" he re- 
plied, " That which has neither beginning nor end." When 
asked what hard thing he had seen, he said, " An old man a 
tyrant." When the question was put to him how a man might 
more easily endure misfortune, he said, " If he saw his enemies 
more unfortunate still." When asked how men might live 
most virtuously and most justly, he said, " If we never do 
ourselves what we blame in others." To the question, " Who 
was happy?" he made answer, "He who is healthy in his 
body, easy in his circumstances, and well-instructed as to his 
mind." He said that men ought to remember those friends 
who were absent as well as those who were present, and not 
to care about adorning their faces, but to be beautified by their 
studies. " Do not," said he, " get rich by evil actions, and let 
not any one ever be able to reproach you with speaking 
against those who partake of your friendship. All the assist- 
ance that you give to your parents, the same you have a right 
to expect from your children." He said that the reason of the 
Nile overflowing was, that its streams were beaten back by 
the Etesian winds blowing in a contrary direction. 

Apollodorus, in his Chronicles, says, that Thales was born 
in the first year of the thirty-fifth Olympiad ; and he died at 
the age of seventy-eight years, or, according to the statement 
of Sosi crates, at the age of ninety, for he died in the fifty-eighth 



THEMISTIUS. 381 

Olympiad, having lived in the time of Croesus, to whom he 
promised that he would enable him to pass the Halys without 
a bridge, by turning the course of the river. 

Thales died while present as a spectator at a gymnastic con- 
test, being worn out with heat and thirst and weakness, for 
he was very old, and the following inscription was placed on 

his tomb : — 

You see this tomb is small — but recollect, 
The fame of Thales reaches to the skies. 

I have also myself composed this epigram on him in the first 
book of my epigrams, or poems in various metres : — 

O mighty suu, our wisest Thales sat 

Spectator of the games, when you did seize upon him ; 
But you were right to take him near yourself. 

Now that his aged sight could scarcely reach to heaven 



THEMISTirS. 



Themistits, who was born in an obscure town of Paphla- 
gonia, fixed his residence at Constantinople, and taught elo- 
quence and philosophy with great success. He had many dis- 
ciples, both Pagan and Christian; among the former was 
Libanius ; among the latter, Gregory JTazianzen. He enjoyed 
the favor of the emperors, by whom he was admitted to the 
highest honors. Constantius, in the year three hundred and 
fifty-five, received him into the senate, and afterwards, in re- 
turn for an eloquent eulogium, presented him with a brazen 
statue. Julian received him as a friend, and frequently cor- 
responded with him. In the year three hnndred and sixty- 
two he was appointed by this emperor prefect of Constanti- 
nople. He enjoyed equal distinction under the succeeding 
emperors, from whom he obtained by his eloquence whatever 
he wished. Theodosius the Great, during his visit to the 
-rn empire, entrnsted Themistius with the care and edu- 



382 THEOPHRASTUS. 

cation of his son Arcadius. His eloquence, wisdom, and ability 
in public affairs, united with uncommon gentleness of temper 
and urbanity of manners, were the foundation of that long 
course of civil honors by which his life was distinguished. 
About the year three hundred and eighty-seven Themistius 
withdrew, at an advanced age, from public business, and soon 
after died. 

A memorable example of the liberal spirit of Themistius 
is related by ecclesiastical historians. The emperor Yalens, 
who favored the Arian party, inflicted many hardships and 
sufferings upon the Trinitarians, and daily threatened them 
with still greater severities. Themistius, to whom these meas- 
ures were exceedingly displeasing, addressed the emperor 
upon the subject in an eloquent speech, in which he repre- 
sented the diversity of opinions among the Christians as in- 
considerable, compared with that of the Pagan philosophers : 
and pleaded that this diversity could not be displeasing to God, 
since it did not prevent men from worshipping him with true 
piety. By these and other arguments Themistius prevailed 
upon the emperor to treat the Trinitarians with great lenity. 



THEOPHRASTUS. 



Theophrastus was a native of Eresus, the son of Melantas, 
a fuller. He was originally a pupil of Leucippus, his fellow 
citizen, in his own country ; and subsequently, after having at- 
tended the lectures of Plato, he went over to Aristotle. And 
when he withdrew to Chalcis, he succeeded him as president 
of his school, in the hundred and fourteenth Olympiad. 

It is also said that a slave of his, by name Pomphylus, was 
a philosopher. 

Theophrastus was a man of great acuteness and industry, 
and he was the tutor of Menandar, the comic poet. He was 



THEOPHKASIUS. 383 

also a most benevolent man, and very affable. Accordingly, 
Cassander received him as a friend; and Ptolemy sent to invite 
him to his court. And he was thought so very highly of at 
Athens, that when Agonides ventured to impeach him on a 
charge of impiety, he was very nearly fined for his hardihood. 
And there thronged to his school a crowd of disciples to the 
number of two thousand. In his letter to Phanias, the Peri- 
patetic, among other subjects he speaks of the court of justice 
in the following terms : " It is not only out of the question to find 
an assembly, but it is not easy to find even a company, such 
as one would like ; but yet recitations produce corrections of 
the judgment. And my age does not allow me to put off 
everything and to feel indifference on such a subject." In 
this letter he speaks of himself as one who devotes his whole 
leisure to learning. 

And though he was of this disposition, he nevertheless went 
away for a short time, both he and all the rest of the philos- 
ophers, in consequence of Sophocles, the son of Amphiclides, 
having brought forward and carried a law that no one of the 
philosophers should preside over a school unless the council 
and the people had passed a resolution to sanction their doing 
so; if they did, death was to be the penalty. But they re- 
turned again the next year, when Philion had impeached 
Sophocles for illegal conduct ; when the Athenians abrogated 
his law, and fined Sophocles five talents, and voted that the 
philosophers should have leave to return, that Theophrastus 
might return and preside over his school as before. 

His name had originally been Tyrtanius, but Aristotle 
changed it to Theophrastus, from the divine character of his 
eloquence* 

It is also related that Aristotle used the same expression 
about him and Callisthenes, which Plato employed about 
Xenocrates and Aristotle himself. For he is reported to have 
said, since Theophrastus was a man of extraordinary acute- 

" From theios, divine, and phrasis, diction. 



384 THEOPHRASTUS. 

ness, who could both comprehend and explain everything, 
and as the other was somewhat slow in his natural character, 
that Theophrastus required a bridle, and Callisthenes a spur. 

It is said, too, that he had a garden of his own after the 
death of Aristotle, by the assistance of Demetrius Phalerius, 
who was an intimate friend of his. 

The following very practical apophthegms of his are quoted. 
He used to say that it was better to trust to a horse without 
a bridle than to a discourse without arrangement. And 
once, when a man preserved a strict silence during the whole 
of a banquet, he said to him, " If you are an ignorant man, 
you are acting wisely ; but if you have had any education, you 
are behaving like a fool." And a very favorite expression of 
his was, that " time was the most valuable thing that a man 
could spend." 

He died when he was of a great age, having lived eighty- 
five years, when he had only rested from his labors a short 
time. And we have composed the following epigram on 
him : — 

Tbe proverb then is not completely false, - 

That wisdom's bow unbent is quickly broken ; 
While Theophrastus labored, he kept sound, 
When he relaxed, he lost his strength and died. 

They say that on one occasion, when dying, he was asked by 
his disciples whether he had any charge to give them ; and he 
replied, that he had none, but that they should "remember 
that life holds out many pleasing deceits to us by the vanity 
of glory ; for that when we are beginning to live, then we are 
dying. There is, therefore, nothing more profitless than am- 
bition. But may you all be fortunate, and either abandon 
philosophy (for it is a great labor), or else cling to it diligent- 
ly, for then the credit of it is great ; but the vanities of life 
exceed the advantage of it. However, it is not requisite for 
me now to advise you what you should do ; but do you your- 
selves consider what line of conduct to adopt." And when 



X E ifO CRATES. 385 

lie had said this, as report goes, he expired. And the Athen- 
ians accompanied him to the grave, on foot, with the whole 
population of the city, as it is related, honoring the man 
greatly. 



XENOCRATES. 



Xexocbates was the son of Agathenor, and a native of 
Chalcedon. From his early youth he was a pupil of Plato, 
and also accompanied him in his voyages to Sicily. He was 
by nature of a lazy disposition, so that they say that Plato 
said once, when comparing him to Aristotle, — u The one re- 
quires the spur, and the other the bridle." And on another 
occasion, he said, " What a horse and what an ass am I dress- 
ing opposite to one another !" 

In other respects Xenocrates was always of a solemn and 
grave character, so that Plato was continually saying to him, 
— "Xenocrates, sacrifice to the Graces. " And he spent the 
greater part of his time in the Academy, and whenever he 
was about to go into the city, they say all the turbulent and 
quarrelsome rabble in the city used to make way for him to 
pass by. And once, Phryne the courtesan wished to try him, 
and pretending that she was pursued by some people, she fled 
and took refuge in his house ; and he admitted her indeed, 
because of what was due to humanity ; and as there was but 
one bed in the room, he, at her entreaty, allowed her to share 
it with him ; but at last, in spite of all her entreaties, she got 
up and went away, without having been able to succeed in her 
purpose ; and told those who asked her, that she had quitted 
a statue and not a man. But some say that the real story is, 
that his pupils put Lais into his bed, and that he was so con- 
tinent, that he submitted to some severe operations of excis- 
ion and cautery. 

33 



386 XENOCRATES. 

He was so abstemious in the use of food, that his provision 
was frequently spoiled before it was consumed. 

So eminent was his reputation for integrity, that when he 
was called upon to give evidence in a judicial transaction, in 
which an oath was usually required, the judges unanimously 
agreed that his simple asseveration should be taken, as a pub- 
lic testimony to his merit. 

He was also a man of the most contented disposition ; ac- 
cordingly they say that when Alexander sent him a large sum 
of money, he took three thousand Attic drachmas, and sent 
back the rest, saying, that Alexander wanted most, as he had 
the greatest number of mouths to feed. And when some was 
sent him by Antipater, he would not accept any of it, as My- 
ornianus tells us in his Similitudes. And once, when he 
gained a golden crown, in a contest as to who could drink 
most, which was offered in the yearly festival of the Ohoes 
by Dionysius, he went out and placed the crown at the feet of 
the statue of Mercury, which was at the gate where he was 
also accustomed to deposit his garland of flowers. It is said, 
also, that he was once sent with some colleagues as an ambas- 
sador to Philip ; and that they were won over by gifts, and 
went to his banquets and conversed with Philip ; but that he 
would do none of these things, nor could Philip propitiate 
him by these means ; on which account, when the other am- 
bassadors arrived in Athens, they said that Xenocrates had 
gone with them to no purpose ; and the people were ready to 
punish him ; but when they had learnt from him that they 
had now more need than ever to look to the welfare of their 
city, for that Philip had already bribed all their counsellors, 
but that he had been unable to win him over by any means, 
then they say that the people honored him with redoubled 
honor. They add also, that Philip said afterwards, that Xe- 
nocrates was the only one of those who had come to him who 
was incorruptible. And when he went as ambassador to An- 
tipater on the subject of the Athenian captives at the time of 



XENOCRATBS. 387 

the Samian war, and was invited by him to a banquet, he ad- 
dressed him in the following lines : — 

I answer, Goddess human, is thy breast 

By justice sway'cl, by tender pity prest? 

Ill fits it me, whose friends are sunk to beasts, 

To quaff thy bowls, or riot in thy feasts : 

Me would'st thou please, for them thy cares employ, 

And them to me restore and me to joy.* 

And Antipater, admiring the appropriateness of the quotation, 
immediately released them. 

On one occasion, when a sparrow was pursued by a hawk, 
and flew into his bosom, he caressed it, and let it go again, 
saying that " We ought not to betray a suppliant." And be- 
ing ridiculed by Bion, he said that he would not answer him, for 
that tragedy, when ridiculed by comedy, did not condescend to 
make a reply. To one who had never learnt music, or geom- 
etry, or astronomy, but who wished to become his disciple, 
he said, " Be gone, for you have not yet the handles of phi- 
losophy." But some say that he said, " Be gone, for I do not 
card wool here." And when Dionysius said to Plato that 
some one would cut off his head, he, being present, showed 
his own, and said, " Not before they have cut of mine." On 
one occasion, when he did not reply to some detractive insin- 
uations, he was asked why he was silent ? He answered, " I 
have sometimes repented of speaking, but never of holding 
my peace." 

They say, too, that once, when Antipater had come to Ath- 
ens and saluted him, he would not make him any reply before 
he had finished quietly the disoourse which he was delivering. 

Being exceedingly devoid of every kind of pride, he often 
used to meditate with himself several times a day ; and al- 
ways allotted one hour of each day, it is said, to silence. He 
used to compare himself to a vessel with a narrow orifice, 
which receives with difficulty, but firmly retains whatever is 

put into it. 

• Horn. Od. x. 387. Pope's Version, 450. 



388 XENOPHON. 

But the Athenians, though he was such a great man, once 
sold him "because he was unable to pay the tax to which the 
metics were liable. And Demetrius Phalereus purchased him, 
and so assisted both parties, Xenocrates by giving him his 
freedom, and the Athenians in respect of the tax upon metics. 

He succeeded Speusippus, and presided over the school for 
twenty-five years, beginning at the archonship of Lysimach- 
ides, in the second year of the hundred and tenth Olympiad. 

And he died in consequence of stumbling by night against 
a dish, and falling into a reservoir of water, being more than 
eighty-two years of age. And in one of our epigrams we 
speak thus of him : — 

He struck against a brazen pot, 

And cut his forehead deep, 
And crying cruel is my lot, 

In death he fell asleep. 
So thus Xenocrates did fall, 
The universal friend of all. 



XENOPHON 



Xenophon, the son of Gryllus, a citizen of Athens, was of 
the borough of Erchia ; he was a man of great modesty, and 
as handsome as can be imagined. 

They say that Socrates met him in a narrow lane, and put 
his stick across it, and prevented him from passing, by asking 
him where all kinds of necessary things were sold. And 
when he had answered him, he asked him again where men 
were made good and virtuous. And as he did not know, he 
said, " Follow me, then, and learn." And from this time forth, 
Xenophon became a follower of Socrates. 

He was the first person who took down conversations as 
they occurred, and published them among men, calling them 



XENOPHON, 389 

memorabilia. He was also the first man who wrote a history 
of philosophers. 

Aristippus, in the fourth book of his treatise on Ancient 
Luxury, says that he loved Clinias; and that he said to him, 
" Now I look upon Clinias with more pleasure than upon all 
the other beautiful things which are to be seen among men ; 
and I would rather be blind as to all the rest of the world, 
than as to Clinias. And I am annoyed even with night and 
with sleep, because then I do not see him ; but I am very 
grateful to the sun and to daylight, because they show Clinias 
to me." 

He became a friend of Cyrus in this manner : He had an 
acquaintance, by name Proxenus, a Boeotian by birth, a pupil 
of Gorgias of Leontini, and a friend of Cyrus. He being in 
Sardis, staying at the court of Cyrus, wrote a letter to Athens 
to Xenophon, inviting him to come and be a friend to Cyrus. 
And Xenophon showed the letters to Socrates, and asked his 
advice. And Socrates bade him go to Delphi, and ask counsel 
of the God. And Xenophon did so, and went to the God ; 
but the question he put was, not whether it was good for him 
to go to Cyrus or not, but how he should go ; for which Soc- 
rates blamed him, but still advised him to go. Accordingly he 
went to Cyrus, and became no less dear to him than Proxe- 
nus. And all the circumstances of the expedition and the 
retreat, he himself has sufficiently related to us. 

But he was at enmity with Menon the Pharsalian, who was 
commander of the foreign troops at the time of the expedi- 
tion; and amongst other reproaches, he says that he was 
much addicted to the worst kind of debauchery. And he re- 
proaches a man of the name of Apollonides with having his 
ears bored. 

But after the expedition, and the disasters which took place 
in Pontus, and the violations of the truce of Seuthes, the king 
of the Odrysse, he came into Asia to Agesilaus, the king of 
Lacedsemon. bringing with him the soldiers of Cyrus, to serve 



390 ZENO. 

for pay; and he became a very great friend of Agesilaus. 
About the same time he was condemned to banishment by the 
Athenians, on the charge of being a favorer of the Lacedse- 
monians. Being in Ephesus, and having a sum of money in 
gold, he gave half of it to Megabyzus, the priest of Diana, to 
keep for him till his return ; and if he never returned, then he 
was to expend it upon a statue, and dedicate that to the God- 
dess ; and with the other half he sent offerings to Delphi. 
From thence he went with Agesilaus into Greece, as Agesilaus 
was summoned to take part in the war against the Thebans. 
The Lacedaemonians made him a friend of their city. 

He was a man of great distinction in all points, and very 
fond of horses and of dogs, and a great tactician, as is mani- 
fest from his writings. And he was a pious man, fond of sac- 
rificing to the Gods, and a great authority as to what was due 
to them, and a very ardent admirer and imitator of Socrates. 

He also wrote near forty books ; though different critics 
divide them differently. After the battle, which was fought 
at Mantinea, they say that Xenophon offered sacrifice, wearing 
a crown on his head ; but when the news of the death of his 
son arrived, he took off the crown ; but after that, hearing 
that he had fallen gloriously, he put the crown on again. And 
some say that he did not even shed a tear, but said, " I knew 
that I was the father of a mortal man." And Aristotle says, 
that innumerable writers wrote panegyrics and epitaphs upon 
Gryllus, partly out of a wish to gratify his father. 



ZENO. 

Zexo was the son of Innaseas, or Demeas, and a native of 
Citium, in Cyprus, which is a Grecian city, partly occupied 
by a Phoenician colony. 

He had his head naturally bent on one side. And he was 



ZENO. 391 

thin, very tall, of a dark complexion ; in reference to which 
some one called him an Egyptian Clematis : he had fat, flabby, 
weak legs, on which account Persaaus, in his Convivial Remi- 
niscenses, says that he used to refuse many invitations to sup- 
per ; and he was very fond, as it is said, of figs both fresh and 
dried in the sun. 

He was a pupil of Crates. After that, they say that he be- 
came a pupil of Stilpon and Xenocrates, for ten years. He is 
also said to have been a pupil of Polemo. But Hecaton, and 
Apollonius, of Tyre, in the first book of his essay on Zeno, 
say that when he consulted the oracle, as to what he ought to 
do to live in the most excellent manner, the God answered 
him that he ought to become of the same complexion as the 
dead, on which he inferred that he ought to apply himself to 
the reading of the books of the ancients. Accordingly, he 
attached himself to Crates in the following manner. Having 
purchased a quantity of purple from Phoenicia, he was ship- 
wrecked close to the Piraeus ; and when he had made his way 
from the coast as far as Athens, he sat down by a book- 
seller's stall, being now about thirty years of age. And as he 
took up the second book of Xenophon's Memorabilia and 
began to read it, he was delighted with it, and asked where 
such men as were described in that book lived ; and as Crates 
happened very seasonably to pass at the moment, the book- 
seller pointed him out, and said, "Follow that man." From 
that time forth he became a pupil of Crates ; but though he 
was in other respects very energetic in his application to phi- 
losophy, still he was too modest for the shamelessness of the 
Cynics. On which account, Crates, wishing to cure him of 
this false shame, gave him a jar of lentil porridge to carry 
through the Ceramicus ; and when he saw that he w r as 
ashamed, and that he endeavored to hide it, he struck the 
jar with his staff, and broke it ; and as Zeno fled away, and 
the lentil porridge ran all down his legs, Crates called after 
him, u Why do you run away, my little Phoenician, you have 



392 z e n o . 

done no harm ?" For some time then he continued a pupil of 
Crates, and when he wrote his treatise entitled the Republic, 
some said, jokingly, that he had written it upon the tail of the 
dog. 

But at last he left Orates, and became the pupil of the phi- 
losophers whom I have mentioned before, and continued with 
them for twenty years. So that it is related that he said, " I 
now find that I made a prosperous voyage when I was 
wrecked." But some affirm that he made this speech in 
reference to Orates. Others say, that while he was staying at 
Athens he heard of a shipwreck, and said, " Fortune does 
well in having driven us on philosophy." But as some relate 
the affair, he was not wrecked at all, but sold all his cargo at 
Athens, and then turned to philosophy. 

And he used to walk up and down in the beautiful colonnade 
which is called the Priscanactium, and which is also called 
foOdle, (i. e. ornamented with variegated painting,) from the 
paintings of Polygnotus, and there he delivered his discourses, 
wishing to make that spot tranquil ; for in the time of the 
thirty, nearly fourteen hundred of the citizens had been 
murdered there by them. 

Accordingly, for the future, men came thither to hear him, 
and from this his pupils were called Stoics, and so were his 
successors also, who had been at first called Zenonians, as 
Epicurus tells us in his Epistles. And before this time, the 
poets who frequented this colonnade (stoa) had been called 
Stoics ; but now Zeno's pupils made the name more notorious. 
Now the Athenians had a great respect for Zeno, so that they 
gave him the keys of their walls, and they also honored him 
with a golden crown, and a brazen statue ; and this was also 
done by his own countrymen, who thought the statue of such 
a man an honor to their city. And the Cittiseans, in the dis- 
trict of Sidon, also claimed him as their countryman. 

He was also much respected by Antigonus, who, whenever 
he came to Athens, used to attend his lectures, and was 



zeno. 393 

constantly inviting him to come to him. But he begged off 
himself, and sent Persseus, one of his intimate friends, who 
was the son of Demetrius, and a Cittiaean by birth, and who 
flourished about the hundred and thirtieth Olympiad, when 
Zeno was an old man. The letter of Antigonus to Zeno was 
as follows, and it is reported by Apollonius, the Syrian, in his 
essay on Zeno. 

KING ANTIGONUS TO ZENO THE PBTLOSOPHEB, GREETING. 

"I think that in good fortune and .glory I have the advan- 
tage of you ; but in reason and education I am inferior to you, 
and also in that perfect happiness which you have attained to. 
On which account I have thought it good to address you, and 
invite you to come to me, being convinced that you will not 
refuse what is asked of you. Endeavor, therefore, by all 
means to come to me, considering this fact, that you will not 
be the instructor of me alone, but of all the Macedonians 
together. For he who instructs the ruler of the Macedonians, 
and who leads him in the path of virtue, evidently marshals 
all his subjects on the road to happiness. For as the ruler is, 
so is it natural that his subjects for the most part should be 
also." 

And Zeno wrote him back the following answer : — 

ZENO TO KING ANTIGONUS, GREETING. 

" I admire your desire for learning, as being a true object 
for the wishes of mankind, and one too that tends to their 
advantage. And the man who aims at the study of philosophy 
has a proper disregard for the popular kind of instruction 
which tends only to the corruption of the morals. And you, 
passing by the pleasure which is so much spoken of, which 
makes the minds of some young men effeminate, show plainly 
that you are inclined to noble pursuits, not merely by your 
nature, but also by your own deliberate choice. And a noble 
nature, when it has received even a slight degree of training, 



394 zeno, 

and which also meets with those who will teach it abundantly, 
proceeds without difficulty to a perfect attainment of virtue. 
But I now find my bodily health impaired by old age, for I 
am eighty years old : on which account I am unable to come 
to you. But I send you some of those who have studied with 
me, who in that learning which has reference to the soul, are 
in no respect inferior to me, and in their bodily vigor are 
greatly my superiors. And if you associate with them you 
will want nothing that can bear upon perfect happiness." 

So he sent him Persseus and Philonides, the Theban, both 
of whom are mentioned by Epicurus, in his letter to his 
brother Aristobulus, as being companions of Antigonus. 

I have thought it worth while also to set down the decree 
of the Athenians concerning him ; and it is couched in the 
following language : — 

" In the archonship of Arrhenides, in the fifth presidency of 
the tribe Acamantis, on the twenty-first day of the month 
Mairaacterion, on the twenty-third day of the aforesaid presi- 
dency, in a duly convened assembly, Hippo, the son of Cratis* 
toteles, of the borough of Xypetion, being one of the presidents, 
and the rest of the presidents, his colleagues, put the follow- 
ing decree to the vote. And the decree was proposed by 
Thrason of Anacsaa, the son of Thrason. 

" Since Zeno, the son of Innaseas, the Cittiaean, has passed 
many years in the city, in the study of philosophy, being in 
all other respects a good man, and also exhorting all the 
young men who have sought his company to the practice of 
virtue, and encouraging them in the practice of temperance ; 
making his own life a model to all men of the greatest excel- 
lence, since it has in every respect corresponded to the doc- 
trines which he has taught ; it has been determined by the 
people (and may the determination be fortunate) to praise 
Zeno, the son of Innaseas, the Cittisean. and to present him 
with a golden crown in accordance with the law, on account 
of his virtue and temperance, and to build him a tomb in the 



z e n o . 395 

Ceramicus, at the public expense. And the people has ap- 
pointed by its vote five men from among the citizens of Athens, 
who shall see to the making of the crown and the building of 
the tomb. And the scribe of the borough shall enrol the de- 
cree and engrave it on two pillars, and he shall be permitted 
to place one pillar in the Academy, and one in the Lyceum. 
And he who is appointed to superintend the work shall divide 
the expense that the pillars amount to, in such a way that 
every one may understand that the whole people of Athens 
honors good men both while they are living and after they 
are dead. And Thrason of Anacaaa, Philocles of the Piraaus, 
Phaadrus of Anaphlystos, Medon of Acharnaas, Mecythus of 
Sypaly ttas, and Dion of Paania, are hereby appointed to super- 
intend the building of the tomb." 

These then are the terms of the decree. 

But Antigonus, of Oarystos, says that Zeno himself never 
denied that he was a native of Cittium. For that when on 
one occasion, there was a citizen of that town who had con- 
tributed to the building of some baths, and was having his 
name engraved on the pillar, as the countryman of Zeno the 
philosopher, he bade them add, u Of Cittium." 

At another time, when he had had a hollow covering made 
for some vessel, he carried it about for some money, in order 
to procure present relief for some difficulties which were dis- 
tressing Orates his master. And they say that he, when he 
first arrived in Greece, had more than a thousand talents, 
which he lent out at nautical usury. And he used to eat lit- 
tle loaves and honey, and to drink a small quantity of sweet 
smelling wine. He had a very few youthful acquaintances of 
the male sex, and he did not cultivate them much, lest he 
should be thought to be a misogynist. And he dwelt in the 
same house with Persaaus ; and once, when he brought in a 
female flute-player to him, he hastened, to bring her back to 
him. 

He was, it is said, of a very accommodating temper ; bo 



396 zeno. 

much so, that Antigorms, the king, often came to dine with 
him, and often carried him off to dine with him, at the house 
of Aristocles the harp-player; but when he was there, he 
would presently steal away. 

It is also said that he avoided a crowd with great care, so 
that he used to sit at the end of a bench, in order at all 
events to avoid being incommoded on one side. And he never 
used to walk with more than two or three companions. And 
he used at times to exact a piece of money from all who came 
to hear him, with a view of not being distressed by numbers ; 
and this story is told by Cleanthes, in his treatise on Brazen 
Money. And when he was surrounded by any great crowd, 
he would point to a balustrade of wood at the end of the 
colonnade which surrounded an altar, and say, " That was 
once in the middle of this place, but it was placed apart be- 
cause it was in people's way; and now, if you will only with^ 
draw from the middle here, you too will incommode me much 
less." 

When Demochares, the son of Laches, embraced him once, 
and said that he would tell Antigonus, or write to him of 
everything which he wanted, as he always did everything for 
him, Zeno, when he had heard him say this, avoided his com- 
pany for the future. And it is said, that after the death of 
Zeno, Antigonus said, " What a spectacle have I lost." On 
which account he employed Thrason, their ambassador, to 
entreat of the Athenians to allow him to be buried in the 
Oeramicus. And when he was asked why he had such an 
admiration for him, he replied, " Because, though I gave him 
a great many important presents, he was never elated, and 
never humbled." 

He was a man of a very investigating spirit, and one who 
inquired very minutely into everything ; in reference to which, 
Timon, in his Silli, speaks thus : — 

I saw an aged woman of Phoenicia, 
Hungry and covetous, in a proud obscurity, 



zeno. 397 

Longing for everything. She had a basket 
So full of holes that it retained nothing. 
Likewise her mind was less than a simdapsus.* 

He used to study very carefully, -with Philo, the dialecti- 
cian, and to argue with him at their mutual leisure ; on which 
account he excited the wonder of the younger Zeno, no less 
than Diodorus his master. 

There were also a lot of dirty beggars always about him, as 
Timon tells us, where he says : — 

Till he collected a vast cloud of beggars, 
Who were of all men in the world the poorest, 
And the moat worthless citizens of Athens. 

And he himself was a man of a morose and bitter counte- 
nance, with a constantly frowning expression. He was very 
economical, and descended even to the meanness of the barba- 
rians, under the pretence of economy. 

If he reproved any one, he did it with brevity and without 
exaggeration, and, as it were, at a distance. I allude, for in- 
stance, to the way in v;hich he spoke of a man who took ex- 
ceeding pains in setting himself off; for as he was crossing a 
gutter with great hesitation, lie said, " He is right to look 
down upon the mud, for he cannot see himself in it." And 
when some Cynic one day said that he had no oil in his cruse, 
and asked him for some, he refused to give him any, but bade 
him go away and consider which of the two was the more im- 
pudent. He was very much in love with Chremonides ; and 
once, when he and Cleanthes were both sitting by him, he got 
up ; and as Cleanthes wondered at this, he said, u I hear from 
skilful physicians that the best thing for some tumors is rest." 
Once, when two people were sitting above him at table at a 
banquet, and the one next him kept kicking the other with his 
foot, he himself kicked him with his knee ; and when he 
turned round upon him for doing so, he said, " Why then do 

* A sort of guitar or violin. 

34 



ZENO. 

you think that your other neighbor is to be treated in this way 
by you?" 

On one occasion he said to a man who was very fond of 
young boys, that " Schoolmasters who were always associat- 
ing with boys had no more intellect than the boys themselves." 
He used also to say that the discourses of those men who were 
careful to avoid solecisms, and to adhere to the strictest rules 
of composition, were like Alexandrine money, they were 
pleasing to the eye and well-formed like the coni, but were 
nothing the better for that; but those who were not so par- 
ticular he likened to the Attic tessedrachmas, which were 
struck at random and without any great nicety, and so he said 
that their discourses often outweighed the more polished style 
of the others. And when Ariston, his disciple, had been hold- 
ing forth a good deal without much wit, but still in some points 
with a good deal of readiness and confidence, he said to him, 
" It would be impossible for you to speak thus, if your father 
had not been drunk when he begat you ;" and for the same 
reason he nicknamed him the chatterer, as he himself was 
very concise in his speeches. Once, when he was in company 
with an epicure who usually left nothing for his messmates, 
and when a large fish was set before him, he took it all as if 
he could eat the whole of it ; and when the others looked at 
him with astonishment, he said, " What then do you think 
that your companions feel every day, if you cannot bear with 
my gluttony for one day ?" 

On one occasion, when a youth was asking him questions 
with a pertinacity unsuited to his age, he led him to a looking 
glass and bade him look at himself, and then asked him 
whether such questions appeared suitable to the face he saw 
there. And when a man said before him once, that in most 
points he did not agree with the doctrines of Antisthenes, he 
quoted to him an apophthegm of Sophocles, and asked him 
whether he thought there was much sense in that, and when 
he said that he did not know, " Are you not then ashamed," 



ZEXO, 

said he, u to pick oat and recollect anything bad which may 
have been said by Antisthenes, but not to regard or remember 
whatever is said that is good V A man once said, that the 
sayings of the philosophers appeared to Mm very trivial ; 
u You say true," replied Zeno, " and their syllables, too, ought 
to be short, if that is possible. " TVhen some one spoke to him 
of Polemo, and said that he proposed one question for discuss-, 
ion and then argued another, he became angry, and said, 
" At what value did he estimate the subject that had been 
proposed?" And he said that a man who was to discuss a 
question ought to have a loud voice and great energy, like the 
actors, but not to open his mouth too wide, which those who 
speak a great deal but only talk nonsense usually do. And he 
used to say that there was no need for those who argued well 
to leave their hearers room to look about them, as good work- 
men do who want to have their work seen ; but that, on the 
contrary, those who are listening to them ought to be so at- 
tentive to all that is said as to have no leisure to take notes. 

Once when a young man was talking a great deal, he said, 
"Tour ears have run down into your tongue." On one occa- 
sion a very handsome man was saying that a wise man did 
not appear to him likely to fall in love ; " Then," said he, M I 
cannot imagine anything that will be more miserable than you 
good-looking fellows." He also used often to say that " Most 
philosophers were wise in great things, but ignorant of petty 
subjects and chance details;" and he used to cite the saying of 
Caphesius, who when one of his pupils was laboring hard to 
be able to blow very powerfully, gave him a slap, and said, 
that " excellence did not depend upon greatness, but greatness 
on excellence." Once, when a young man was arguing very 
confidently, he said, " I should not like to say, O youth, all 
that occurs to me." And once, when a handsome and wealthy 
Rhodian, but one who had no other qualification, was pressing 
him to take him as a pupil, he, as he was not inclined to re- 
ceive him, first of all made him sit on the dusty seats that he 



400 ZENO. 

might dirt his cloak, then he put him down in the place of the 
poor that he might rub against their rags, and at last the 
young man went away. One of his sayings used to be, that 
" Vanity was the most unbecoming of all things, and especially 
so in the young." Another was, that " One ought not to try 
and recollect the exact words and expressions of a discourse, 
but to fix all one's attention on the arrangement of the argu- 
ments, instead of treating it as if it were a piece of boiled 
meat, or some delicate eatable." He used also to say, that 
" Young men ought to maintain the most scrupulous reserve 
in their walking, their gait, and their dress ;" and he was 
constantly quoting the lines of Euripides on Capaneus, that — 

His wealth was ample, 
But yet no pride did mingle with his state, 
Nor had he haughty thought, or arrogance, 
More than the poorest man. 

And one of his sayings used to be that " Nothing was more 
unfriendly to the comprehension of the accurate sciences than 
poetry ;" and that " There was nothing that we stood in so 
much need of as time." When he was asked what a friend 
was, he replied, " Another I." They say that he was once 
scourging a slave, whom he had detected in theft ; and when 
he said to him, " It was fated that I should steal ;" he re- 
joined, "Yes, and that you should be beaten." He used to 
call beauty the flower of the voice ; but some report this as 
as if he had said that the voice is the flower of beauty. On 
one occasion, when he saw a slave belonging to one of his 
friends severely bruised, he said to his friend, " I see the foot- 
steps of your anger." fie once accosted a man who was all 
over unguents and perfumes, " Who is this who smells like 
a woman ?" When Dionysius Metathemenus asked him why 
he was the only person whom he did not correct, he replied, 
" Because I have no confidence in you." A young man was 
talking a great deal of nonsense, and he said to him, " This is 



ZENO. 401 

the reason why we have two ears and only one month, that 
we may hear more and speak less." 

Once, when he was at an entertainment and remained 
wholly silent, he was asked what the reason was ; and so he 
bade the person who found fanlt with him to tell the king that 
there was a man in the room who knew how to hold his 
tongue ; now the people who asked him this were ambassa- 
dors who had come from Ptolemy, and who wished to know 
what report they were to make of him to the king. He was 
once asked how he felt when people abused him, and he said, 
" As an ambassador feels when he is sent away without an 
answer." Apollonius of Tyre tells us, that when Crates 
dragged him by the cloak away from Stilpo, he said, " O 
Crates, the proper way to take hold of philosophers is by the 
ears; so now do you convince me and drag me by them; 
but if you use force towards me, my body may be with you, 
but my mind with Stilpo." 

He used to devote a good deal of time to Diodorus ; and he 
studied dialectics under him. And when he made a good 
deal of progress he attached himself to Polemo because of 
his freedom from arrogance, so that it is reported that he 
said to him, "lam not ignorant, Zeno, that you slip into 
the garden-door and steal my doctrines, and then clothe them 
in a Phoenician dress." When a dialectician once showed 
him seven species of dialectic argument in the mowing argu- 
ment,* he asked him how much he charged for them, and 
when he said u A hundred drachmas," he gave him two hun- 
dred, so exceedingly devoted was he to learning. 

They say, too, that he was the first who ever employed the 
word duty (kathtkori), and who wrote a treatise on the sub- 
ject. And that he altered the lines of Hesiod thus : — 

* A species of argument so called, because he who used it mowed or 
knocked down his adversaries.— Aldob. 

34 



402 Z E N . 

He is the best of all men who submits 
To follow good advice ; he too is good, 
Who of himself perceives whate'er is fit.* 

For he said that that man who had the capacity to give a 
proper hearing to what was said, and to avail himself of it, 
was superior to him who comprehended everything by his 
own intellect ; for that the one had only comprehension, but 
the one who took good advice had action also. 

When he was asked why he, who was generally austere, re- 
laxed^ at a dinner party, he said, " Lupins too are bitter, but 
when they are soaked they become sweet." And Hecaton, 
in the second book of his Apophthegms, says, that in the en- 
tertainments of that kind, he used to indulge himself freely. 
And he used to say that " it was better to trip with the feet, 
than with the tongue." And that " goodness was attained by 
little and little, but was not itself a small thing." Some 
authors, however, attribute this saying to Socrates. 

He was a person of great powers of abstinence and en- 
durance ; and of very simple habits, living on food which re- 
quired no fire to dress it, and wearing a thin cloak, so that it 
was said of him : — 

The cold of winter, and the ceaseless rain, 
Come powerless against him ; weak is the part 
Of the fierce summer sun, or fell disease, 
To bend that iron frame. He stands apart, 
In nought resembling the vast common crowd ; 
But, patient and unwearied, night and day, 
Clings to his studies and philosophy. 

The comic poets, without intending it, praise him in their 

* The lines in Hesiod are :— 

That man is best, whose unassisted wit 
Perceives at once what in each case is fit. 
And next to him, he surely is most wise, 
Who willingly submits to good advice. 



Z E N o . 403 

very attempts to turn hira into ridicule. Philemon speaks 
thus of him in his play entitled the Philosophers : — 

This man adopts a new philosophy, 
He teaches to be hungry ; nevertheless, 
He gets disciples. Bread his only food, 
His best desert dr.ed figs ; water his drink. 

But some attribute these lines to Posidippus. And they 
have become almost a proverb. Accordingly, it used to be 
said of him, " More temperate than Zeno the philosopher." 
Posidippus also writes thus in his Men Transported : — 

So that for ten wbole days he did appear 
More temperate than Zeno's self. 

For in reality he did surpass all men in this description of 
virtue, and in dignity of demeanor, and, by Jove, in happi- 
ness. For he lived ninety-eight years, and then died, without 
any disease, and continuing in good health to the last. But 
Persseus, in his Ethical School, states that he died at the age 
of seventy-two, and that he came to x\thens when he was 
twenty-two years old. But Apollonius says that he presided 
over his school for forty-eight years. 

He died in the following manner. When he was going out 

of his school, he tripped and broke one of his toes; and 

striking the ground with his hand, he repeated the line out 

of the 2s iobe : — 

I come ; why call me so? 

And immediately he strangled himself, and so he died. But 
the Athenians buried him in the Ceramicus, and honored him 
with the decrees which I have mentioned before, bearing wit- 
ness to his virtue. Antipater, the Sidonian, wrote an inscrip- 
tion for him, which runs thus : — 

Here Cittium's pride, wise Zeno, lies, who climb'd 

The summits of Olympus ; but unmoved 

By wicked thoughts ne'er strove to rise on Ossa 

The pine-clad Pelion ; nor did he emulate 

The immortal toils of Hercules ; but found 

A new way for himself to the highest heaven, 

By virtue, temperance, and modesty. 



404 ZENO. 

And Zenodotus, the Stoic, a disciple of Diogenes, wrote 
another : — 

You made contentment the chief rule of life, 
Despising haughty wealth, O God -like Zeno. 
With solemn look, and hoary brow serene, 
You taught a manly doctrine ; and didst found 
By your deep wisdom, a great novel school, 
Chaste parent of unfearing liberty. 
And if your country was Phoenicia, 
Why need we grieve ? from that land Cadmus came, 
Who gave to Greece her written books of wisdom. 

Athenseus, the epigrammatic poet, speaks thus of all the 
Stoics in common : — 

O, ye who' ve learnt the doctrines of the Porch, 
And have committed to your books divine 
The best of human learning ; teaching men 
That the mind's virtue is the only good. 
And she it is who keeps the lives of men, 
And cities, safer than high gates or walls. 
But those who place their happiness in pleasure, 
Are led by the least worthy of the Muses. 

And we also have ourselves spoken of the manner of Zeno's 
death, in our collection of poems in all metres, in the follow- 
ing terms : — 

Some say that Zeno, pride of Cittium, 
Died of old age, when weak and quite worn out 
Some say that famine's cruel tooth did slay him ; 
Some that he fell, and striking hard the ground, 
Said, " See, I come, why call me thus impatiently ?" 

For some say that this was the way in which he died, 
this is enough to say concerning his death. 

But Demetrius, the Magnesian, says, in his essay on People 
of the Same Name, that his father Innaseas often came to 
Athens, as he was a merchant, and that he used to bring back 
many of the books of the Socratic Philosophers, to Zeno, 
while he was still only a boy ; and that, from this circumstance, 
Zeno had already become talked of in his own country ; and 
that in consequence of this he went to Athens, where he at- 



ZENO. 405 

tached himself to Orates. And it seems, he adds, that it was 
he who first recommended a clear enunciation of principles, 
as the best remedy for error. He is said, too, lo have been in 
the habit of swearing " By Capers," as Socrates swore " By 
the Dog." 

Some, indeed, among whom is Cassius the Sceptic, attack 
Zeno on many accounts, saying first of all that he denounced 
the general system of education in vogue at the time, as use- 
less, which he did in the beginning of his Republic. And in 
the second place, that he used to call all who were not virtuous, 
adversaries, and enemies, and slaves, and unfriendly to one 
another, parents to their children, brethren to brethren, and 
kinsmen to kinsmen; and again, that in his Republic, he 
speaks of the virtuous as the only citizens, and friends, and re- 
lations, and free men, so that in the doctrine of the Stoic, 
even parents and their children are enemies ; for they are not 
wise. Also, that he lays down the principle of the community 
of woman both in his Republic and in a poem of two hundred 
verses, and teaches that neither temples nor courts of law, nor 
gymnasia, ought to be erected in a city ; moreover, that he 
writes thus about money : " That he does not think that men 
ought to coin money either for purposes of traffic, or travel- 
ling." Besides all this, he enjoins men and women to wear 
the same dress, and to leave no part of their person uncovered. 

And that this treatise on the Republic is his work we are 
assured by Chrysippus, in his Republic. He also discussed 
amatory subjects in the beginning of that book of his which 
is entitled the Art of Love. And in his Conversations he 
writes in a similar manner. 

Such are the charges made against him by Cassius, and also 
by Isidorus, of Pergamus, the orator, who says that all the un- 
becoming doctrines and assertions of the Stoics were cut out 
of their books by Athenodorus, the Stoic, who was the curator 
of the library at Pergamus. And that subsequently they were 
replaced, as Athenodorus was detected, and placed in a situa- 



406 ZENO, THE ELEATIC. 

tion of great danger; and this is sufficient to say about those 
doctrines of his which were impugned. 

The disciples of Zeno were very numerous. The most emi- 
nent were, first of all, Perseus, of Oittium, the son of Deme- 
trius, whom some call a friend of his, but others describe him 
as a servant and one of the amanuenses who were sent to him 
by Antigonus, to whose son, Halcymeus, he also acted as 
tutor. And Antigonus once, wishing to make trial of him, 
caused some false news to be brought to him that his estate 
had been ravaged by the enemy ; and as he began to look 
gloomy at this news, he said to him, " You see that wealth is 
not a matter of indifference." 



ZENO, THE ELEATIC. 

Zeno was a native of Yelia. Apollodorus, in his Chron- 
icles, says that he was by nature the son of Telentagoras, but 
by adoption the son of Parmenides. 

Timon speaks thus of him and Melissus : — 

Great is the strength, invincible the might 
Of Zeno, skilled to argue on both sides 
Of any question, the universal critic ; 
And of Melissus too. They rose superior 
To prejudice in general ; only yielding 
To very few. 

And Zeno had been a pupil of Parmenides, and had been 
on other accounts greatly attached to him. 

He was a tall man. Aristotle, in his Sophist, says that he 
was the inventor of dialectics, as Empedocles was of rhetoric. 
And he was a man of the greatest nobleness of spirit, both in 
philosophy and in politics. There are also many books ex- 
tant, which are attributed to him, full of great learning and 
wisdom. 



ZENO, THE ELEATIC. 407 

He, wishing to put an end to the power of Searches, the 
tyrant (some, however, call the tyrant DiomedoD), was arrest- 
ed, as we are informed by Heraclides, in his abridgment of 
Satyrns. And when he was examined as to his accomplices, 
and as to the arms which he was taking to Lipara, he 
named all the friends of the tyrant as his accomplices, wish- 
ing to make him feel himself alone. And then, after he had 
mentioned some names, he said that he wished to whisper 
something privately to the tyrant ; and when he came near 
him he bit him, and would not leave his hold till he was 
stabbed. And the same thing happened to Aristogiton, the 
tyrant slayer. But Demetrius, in his treatise on People of 
the Same Name, says that it was his nose that he bit off. 

Moreover, Antisthenes, in his Successions, says that after 
he had given him information against his friends, he was 
asked by the tyrant if there was any one else. And he 
replied, " Yes, you, the destruction of the city." And that 
he also said to the bystanders, " I marvel at your coward- 
ice, if you submit to be slaves to the tyrant out of fear of 
such pains as I am now enduring." And at last he bit off 
his tongue and spit it at him ; and the citizens immediately 
rushed forward, and slew the tyrant with stones. And 
this is the account that is given by almost every one. 

But Hermippus says that he was put into a mortar and 
pounded to death. And we ourselves have written the fol- 
lowing epigram on him : — 

Your noble wish, O Zeno, was to slay 
A cruel tyrant, freeing Elea 
From the harsh bonds of shameful slavery, 
But you were disappointed ; for the tyrant 
Pounded you in a mortar. I say wrong, 
He only crushed your body, and not you. 

Zeno was an excellent man in other respects ; and he was 
also a despiser of great men in an equal degree with Heracli- 
tus ; for he, too. preferred the town which was formerly 



408 Z"ENO, THE ELEATIC. 

called Hyele, and afterwards Elea, being a colony of the Pho- 
casans, and his own native place, a poor city possessed of no 
other importance than the knowledge of how to raise virtu- 
ous citizens to the pride of the Athenians; so that he did 
not often visit them, but spent his life at home. 

They say that when he was reproached, he was indignant ; 
and that when some one blamed him, he replied, " If when I 
am reproached, I am not angered, then T shall not be pleased 
when I am praised." 

This Zeno flourished about the seventy-ninth Olympiad. 



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